Just as I was about to leave the tent, his voice stopped me cold.
"This world is no longer the same world you remember."
The words struck something deep inside me. I turned back slowly and sat down again, facing him with whatever steadiness I could gather.
He watched me for a long moment before speaking. "I must warn you," he said quietly, "what I'm about to tell you lies far outside the ordinary." He leaned forward. "But before that… I want you to tell me everything. What happened on that mountain. Every detail. Understand?"
His expression left no room for hesitation.
I nodded and began recounting everything—from the moment Yash and I arrived in Uttarakhand, to the landslide, to the way the world had seemed to rip itself apart. How the sound came first, how the mountain trembled, and how everything went dark before I could scream.
I told him about waking up buried in snow. The ruined inn. The distorted dates. The sense that nothing around me matched the world I remembered.
"…When I asked that lady for today's date," I finished, "she said it was the first of March. Hearing that… I completely froze. Then a soldier came for me and brought me here."
When I finally stopped speaking, the tent fell still. He didn't move, didn't blink, but something subtle softened behind his stern eyes—as if my words had nudged open a door he'd kept locked for months.
He let out a long, weary breath.
"I suppose it's my turn now," he murmured, sounding older than before. His gaze drifted somewhere far away, as if chasing memories that refused to stay buried.
He began.
"BOOOOOOM."
The sound wasn't loud in the tent, but the memory of it seemed to shake the air around him.
"That was it," he said. "The sound that swallowed the entire world."
He paused, the weight of it settling between us.
"It wasn't local. It wasn't national. It was heard everywhere—across continents, across oceans. A single sound that shook the entire planet."
His voice dropped lower.
"And after that… everything stopped. People froze where they stood. Conversations died mid-sentence. For a moment, the world seemed to forget how to breathe."
Then his jaw tightened.
"And when movement returned, it came with chaos. People fainted on sidewalks. Elderly hearts stopped instantly. Cars crashed into walls. Planes dropped out of the sky. Families were torn apart in seconds. No one knew what was happening."
He leaned back slightly.
"But that wasn't the worst of it. Thousands of people… vanished. Not dead. Not injured. Gone. No bodies. No clues. No explanations."
A cold wave slid down my spine.
"The government tried to contain the panic," he said, "but by the time they mobilized, it was already too late. The world had changed."
His eyes darkened, something like fear flickering beneath the surface.
"They named that day Vicyuta Day."
The name echoed in the tent like a funeral bell.
"People expected a catastrophe to follow," he continued. "And they got one. But they also got something else—something the world had never seen."
His expression hardened with a strange mixture of caution and awe.
"On the same day thousands vanished, scientists detected a new form of energy in the atmosphere. Something pure. Something powerful. Something unexplainable."
He let the word fall slowly, deliberately.
"Ojas."
"It wasn't nuclear, or solar, or anything humans had ever studied. It behaved differently. It responded differently. And within days, its traces began appearing everywhere—mountains, forests, deserts… even inside the human body."
I frowned, trying to connect the dots. "But how is this related to me being unconscious for seven months?"
He shot me a glare. "Patience, boy. Don't interrupt."
I shut my mouth, tension knotting in my stomach.
He continued.
"As people focused on Ojas, another problem began unfolding. Two weeks after Vicyuta Day, millions of reports came in from across the world."
His voice dropped into a grave whisper.
"People were collapsing."
"At first it was assumed they'd wake up in a few hours. But they didn't. Not in a day. Not in a week."
He looked straight at me.
"Within a month, almost everyone between thirteen and fifty had fallen into a deep, unexplained sleep."
The horror of it pressed down on me like weight on my chest.
"Governments imposed lockdowns. Streets emptied. Those still awake were forced to care for the unconscious. Hospitals overflowed. Scientists tore apart the phenomenon but found nothing—no disease, no toxin, no physical cause."
He paused.
"And strangely… the ones who collapsed were the healthy ones. The strong ones."
A chill crept up my spine.
"Then, three months later, the first person woke up."
His voice shifted—quiet, reverent, unsettled.
"And he was… different. Stronger. Faster. His mind sharper. Soon others woke, and with every awakening, new abilities appeared."
He lifted his hand and held it in the air, as if remembering something he'd witnessed.
"One person lifted three hundred kilograms with ease. Another bent metal without touching it."
"Scientists called the deep sleep the Pariama Stage—a forced evolutionary leap triggered by Ojas. Religious leaders declared it a blessing. Governments… feared it."
His gaze locked onto me.
"Ojas increases the life essence—prana—inside the body. The more prana you absorb, the stronger the evolution."
He leaned forward.
"Even after seven months, many people are still in their Pariama Stage. And I believe you… were one of them."
The world seemed to tilt under me.
For a moment, everything inside my chest tightened into something painful.
Seven months.
Seven months while the world turned upside down.
Seven months while people evolved, while chaos spread, while humanity changed.
Seven months while my family—
My breath hitched.
Were they among those who vanished? Were they unconscious somewhere? Who was taking care of them? Were they alive? Did they think I was dead?
And Yash—my little brother—was he lost in the landslide? Or was he one of the vanished? Or… something else entirely?
The captain's explanation answered one question only to create a dozen more. Fear throbbed through me, grief prickled under my skin, and disbelief clawed at the back of my throat.
The world I knew hadn't just changed.
It had become something unrecognizable.
And somehow… I had slept through the birth of it.
A.N. - VICYUTA means the day of disappearance or the day they lost/vanished.
PARIAMA means evolution/upgrade.
Ojas is a term used for spiritual energy. Like mana or qi.
(pls leave a comment if you like the story.)