Titans (Outdated)

Chapter Lambda

"Hello Cody," Michelle said.

"They are here to talk with you if that's alright with you," Ms. Summers said to Cody. He nodded and sat down facing them. Ms. Summers walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"So, Cody." Darrell started. "Ms. Summers tells us you like sports." Cody weakly nodded, then he realized something. He had seen Darrell before.

"You were watching me play basketball," Cody said, less of a question and more of a statement. Darrell repositioned his glasses and nodded.

"We were passing by here and saw you all playing and decided to stop and watch," Michelle said.

"You are good," Mr. Fellows said. "Very good. Little rusty on your jump shots but other than that pretty solid."

"What are you talking about?" Cody said. "My jump shots are fine."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with fine, but I would recommend more of an arc on your shots, you'll score more baskets then." Mr. Fellows said. The rest of the evening consisted of Mr. Fellows and Cody discussing basketball techniques, Darrell and Michelle telling Cody what they did for work and a bit about their own life. By the end of the evening, they were laughing and joking like old friends.

Cody had a good time; he was glad there was someone he could talk to again and feel like his normal self. That evening had been a small taste of his past that he so longed for again.

At the end of the night, the Fellows had to leave but promised to be there again the next day. True to their word, they showed up the next day. The process repeated itself for a few days until one day the Fellows sat Cody down to talk with him.

"Cody," Mrs. Fellows had begun. She couldn't find the right words and had looked over at her husband. He looked over at Cody and continued.

"We like you, you are a great kid," he started. "I know this is moving a bit fast but we were wondering if you would-"

"We want to adopt you," Mrs. Fellows blurted out suddenly. Darrell gestured to his wife as if to say 'What she said.'

"Well, what do you say?" Darrell asked.

Cody had sat in silence for the next few moment. He couldn't remember how long he sat there or what had caused him to answer the way he did but all he remembered was the one word he replied.

"Yes."

The next few days blurred together, Cody didn't know if it was one day or several but the next thing he knew, he was saying goodbye to his new friends and getting in the Fellow's car. They drove for a bit before Cody fell asleep, he remembered being woken up and walked up to a small bedroom. He instantly crashed on the bed and fell asleep, too exhausted from the events of the week to continue on.

The only problem was that Cody woke up here. In a dark room where he couldn't even see the knees in front of his own face. He could hear other noises around him, people his age either whispering or crying softly in the darkness.

Cody didn't have to wait long to figure out what was going on however. At that moment, the lights flicked on and illuminated a large room. Cody looked around and saw several kids his age standing around, looking confused. He also noticed that there were several men with large guns surrounding the perimeter. Cody recognized one of them as Darrell Fellows. He ran up to him.

"Mr. Fellows, what is going o-" but the last word was cut short as the man known as Darrell Fellows jammed the end of the gun into Cody's rib. He fell to the ground clutching his side, trying to regain is breath.

"Attention!" A loud voice came from all around them. The children looked around for the source of the noise. Cody quickly noticed it was coming from an intercom system above them.

"I realize all of you are confused, that is understandable so I will make the rules simple. Fight! You win... you live. You lose...you die."

Everyone in the room started talking at once to no one in particular.

"What's going on?"

"Why?"

"What does that mean?"

"I want to go home!"

Suddenly a shot rang out and everyone stopped talking. The intercom system clicked on again.

"You live, your questions will be answered. But to live, you must win. The fight will begin...now!" The intercom system clicked off. No one moved. No one started fighting.

"This is crazy," Someone yelled out from the crowd, everyone turned to look at a boy a bit older than Cody. "They think they can just pin us on each other like this? They have no right to do so. This is insane; I'm not going to fight and neither should-" but he was cut off as another shot sounded in the arena. This one found a mark. The boy fell backwards and collapsed on the ground.

Chaos ensued after that moment. Fights begun. The sound of an all out brawl filled the room. Cody heard a loud scream from one side and turned to see someone running at him, fist raised. Cody raised an arm, placing them on the boy's midsection. He pushed sideways, using his own weight against him. He went to the ground hard; he didn't get up. He was thankful for those karate lesions his parents had signed him up for, hopefully that will give him some kind of advantage.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned, arms raised. He was ready for any attack. He noticed it was a girl, taller than Cody. She had long, dark brown hair. She looked as scared as Cody. She had her hands held up in surrender. Cody nodded and dropped his fists.

"Listen, we should team up," the girl said, her deep blue eyes penetrating his gaze. "Alone, we'll get killed, together we have a better chance." She stuck out her hand.

"You got it," Cody said, taking the hand and shaking it.

"Great, those two are with us," the girl said gesturing to two over in the corner, standing back to back, fighting whatever came at them. Cody noticed movement behind the girls shoulder. He pushed her behind him and pushing off of her, jumped i