Chapter 1 Worst-Case Scenario

Chapter 1 Worst-Case Scenario

Sylas shrugged off his lab coat, smoothing his black button-up shirt with a hand and hanging up the long white coat with another.

Even after a long day in the lab, working with various toxins, he didn't seem affected in the slightest. His steely green eyes carried the same emotionless stare behind his black-framed glasses, and his toned, though slight, build still stood ramrod straight.

As he left the university, he was greeted by passing students and professors. He gave them each a polite but curt nod, his strides long and almost vigorous.

The fall air was a bit brisk, but refreshing to his nose. The university had quite an open-concept design, and after walking down from the top-floor labs, the first floor was nothing but large, arching pillars that held up the higher floors and let the rush of wind and nature in.

'It's getting dark. A bit early for that,' he thought.

Winter was coming, and daylight-saving time had already passed, but it was still around only four o'clock. The sun probably shouldn't have begun to set until five.

Sylas found it a bit curious.

"—It's all the global warming, I tell ya. It's already the first week of December, but have you seen a lick of snow? I'm telling you, those Browns, they're sc—"

Sylas' long strides didn't slow as he passed by a hotdog cart. He caught some of the conversation, but he wasn't going to slow down to intrude.

Plus, what could global warming have to do with when night and day came?

'... It's possible,' Sylas thought. 'If there's enough of a change at the north and south poles, the tilt of Earth could shift enough that daylight would...'

A string of thoughts came to Sylas' mind, followed by an even longer string of equations and calculations. He didn't bother to stop these thoughts; it was a nice way to pass the time as he moved.

The world was an interesting place. He doubted the hotdog merchant knew of all of this, and most might scoff at his claims, but there had been the possibility of a kernel of truth to it.

Sylas still didn't believe that it would happen.

Half the world thought that global warming would be the end of all things. The other half thought it was an overblown mess conjured up by fear mongers.

To Sylas, as were most things, he felt the truth was in the middle somewhere, though potentially leaning more to one side than the other.

He ended up spending quite some time on this problem, and before he knew it, his home was before him.

To have a house so close to the university, Sylas, or rather his family, was quite well off. The suburban home came with a three-car garage, a well-trimmed lawn, and the ample spacing between homes one would expect from a gated community full of those of upper-class society.

Sylas opened the unlocked door and bent down to pull his dress shoes off. However, he was unexpectedly barraged with noise much more substantial than he would expect from his home.

The commotion was muffled, so he couldn't quite make out the exact words being said, but there was definitely an argument going on.

His indifference gave way to a frown.

He lived with his mother, father, grandfather, and little sister. It could be considered to be a harmonious household, and he had been quite lucky all his life. The most his parents would argue about is what to have for dinner.

The sound of footsteps caught Sylas' attention and an elegant, middle-aged woman came into view from the living room. A little girl of about 13 years old clung to her, tears brimming in her large green eyes.

The middle-aged woman wore quite a helpless expression.

"Sylas, you're home, that's good. You know I've told you to just take one of the cars. Why do you insist on walking every day?"

These were words Sylas had heard many times before, but he could tell that his mother just wanted to take her mind off of the argument happening in the basement. Sylas had deduced that, for it to be so muffled, it could only be taking place down there.

The basement could be considered the man cave of the house. It was there the gym and various games were located. This wasn't to say that these things were important now, but rather that it was a place Sylas' father and grandfather tended to go to relax. It was odd that an argument would break out between them down there.

Unless someone else was involved?

Sylas doubted it.

His parents were business professionals, but they had a strict "no work from home" policy. So, it couldn't be a colleague. But he couldn't think of any friends his parents would have that could trigger such a big argument, either.

"It's not far, mother."

He walked forward, rubbing his sister's little head in an attempt to comfort her.

"It's at least five kilometers. Just look, the skies are already dark, but your last lessons ended at four. You know it's not safe out these days."

Sylas listened to his mother's nagging without complaint. If he cared so much about escaping his family, as a 26-year-old who had already secured tenure at his university, he could have moved out long ago.

Life on the outside didn't have much attraction to him.

He had quite a few friends, though no best friends.

He had had girlfriends in the past, but most were infatuated by an ideal of who he was, instead of the person he actually was.

He wasn't a fan of drinking, partying, or smoking.

All the reasons he might be eager to escape his mother's hawk-like eyes simply didn't exist.

"I'll go see what's going on," Sylas finally managed to fit in a word.

His mother hesitated, but ultimately nodded. She didn't want to get in between her husband and her father-in-law. It really was best if Sylas went.

Sylas nodded and headed down the hall, opening the door to the basement and making his way down.

Cedric's triumphant smile became bitter, and Magnus' eyes lit up.

Sylas walked to the side and unplugged a laptop that was streaming a movie to the flatscreen. It was stuck on a cartoon princess, so Sylas assumed that his sister had been down here before the argument broke out.

He walked back and placed the laptop down on the pool table in view of his father and grandfather.

"The most elite families in the world, I can think of quite a few, but just to check, we only really need to focus on three. Let's go with the Browns, the Abadi family, and the Rouse family.

"All three of these families have high-profile members that have their flight histories tracked, and all three have publicly known estate addresses."

Sylas looked up at his grandfather. "Is the address of the Browns the same as the publicly available one?"

He spun the laptop screen toward his grandfather. It displayed a location deep in the Appalachians.

"Yes, this is the location," Magnus nodded.

"Good. That means we can reasonably conclude that if there's an upswell of "returnees", then many of these high-profile people will be returning home as well.

"Lucius Brown... Malachi Brown... Astrid Brown..."

These three were just the three billionaires that the Brown family had created in this generation. All of them were in their forties and had forged a path in their own unique industries.

Sylas frowned.

Cedric frowned.

Magnus laughed.

Sylas opened up a new tab.

"Kael Abadi... Asher Abadi..."

Sylas' frown deepened.

"Ragnar Rouse... Thorne Rouse... Draven Rouse..."

Each one, again and again, without fail, all had flight histories tracking them right to their estates and none afterward. All within the last week.

Sylas' fingers sprang across the keyboard as though he were playing the keys of a piano. They seemed to blur as he moved faster. He forgot his grandfather and father were even present as he opened up tab after tab.

He said that he would stop at three families, but he didn't. He pored over every powerful family he could think of, an entire dozen of them before he was satisfied. He even checked some of the more minor ones he didn't think were that special compared to the rest, and it hadn't changed a thing.

Sylas almost slammed the laptop shut.

"I do not know how true grandfather's words are, but we need to go. Worst-case scenario, we return on Monday."

Cedric's expression was solemn. He looked toward his father, but Magnus had stopped gloating, almost as though Sylas had just convinced him as well.

...

That night, Sylas lay in silence, looking up at the bland ceiling of his room.

'Is this excitement?'

He couldn't remember the last time he had felt that. Even all the rare snakes he worked with, snakes that could kill an elephant with a bite, didn't get his heart rate racing like this.

The world just felt... boring to him. Sometimes, he wished he was a religious person just so that he could feel assured that something bigger was waiting out there.

This just might be that.

Sylas looked over as his room door creaked open. A little munchkin dressed in a pink nightgown that almost dragged across the floor peeked her head in.

Sylas smiled lightly. It seemed that the crying fit Elara had gotten into earlier today made her not want to sleep alone.

"Fine, but you're getting too big for this, you know."

Elara pouted her lips and scurried into his bed anyway. She dove into his covers and claimed a half of his bed, ignoring him as though he wasn't even there.

This seemed to calm Sylas somewhat, and he felt that sleep wasn't so far off after all.

"Sylas, am I going to see my friends again?"

"Maybe," he replied after some pause.

"Humph, mom and dad said definitely. I knew they were lying."

Sylas smiled bitterly. It seemed he might get scolded again for that one.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," Sylas finally said.

After all, it wasn't like these families were escaping into outer space, right? Ultimately, they were all on the same planet. That meant there was a chance for everyone to survive.

Although... Sylas knew that those odds, according to his calculations, were entirely too slim.Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates