Chapter One

Ponyboy's POV

It was a hot night. The jungle of Vietnam had sure out done itself tonight. Beads of sweat feel down my face and back, I wiped it away every five seconds, just for it to be replaced with new sweat beads.
It had been a quiet few days, there was no sign of the enemy and I was starting to get anxious. Every sound made me tense and put me on edge, but you had to be on edge here, and you also needed to always keep your guard up because at any moment you could get killed in an ambush..
But I had to stay alive- For my brothers, and what's left of the gang. But the most messed up thing about this situation is that they were all on the other side of Vietnam, together, while I was stuck here by myself. I did have my troop of course, but they weren't my brothers, and my brothers is what I needed right now.

The day of when I got my notice crosses my mind; it was a few days after my 17th Birthday. It was around the month when the government got desperate and started shipping off 16 year olds. Darry had assured me that I would get out of it because of my grades and potential. But it had seemed they had shipped off every Greaser in Tulsa Oklahoma that was of age, tearing apart more families. Soda's notice came a few days after mine, and then Darry's followed. Normally Darry wouldn't have gotten one because he was my only legal guardian, but because I was shipped off, it put him in the headlights also. Like wildfire, Steve and Two-bit soon got theirs too.
Two weeks later we all filed into the bus with our hair cut and in full uniform and headed for boot-camp where we trained for 8 weeks, learning combat and gun skills. By the end of the 8 weeks we were surprised our limbs still worked, because let me tell you, waking up at 6am and training till 8:30pm didn't make you feel too hot by the end of it.

The day that we were told what troop we would be in we were all convinced we'd be in the same troop, which was partly true, they were all together, and I being the unluckiest was separated from them, and there was nothing that any of us could do about it.
"Ay Curtis, we're going to be moving camp in an hour, get ready, pack your stuff and we'll be out of here before sunset."
"Yes sir." I replied. My troop leader Marcus gave me a strange look and moved onto the next tent. Wiping tears from my eyes, I got up and packed the little stuff I had brought over here and placed it in my duffel-bag.
"Ponyboy, it'll be alright man, maybe we'll pass your brothers along the way." Jumping, startled, I look around to see my buddy Eric giving me a sympathetic smile, he always knew when I was thinking about my brothers...partly because I cried when I did, but Eric could read people real easily, he was something else, and out of all the men in the troop, I hoped that he was lucky enough to get out of this alive, for his daughters sake also.
Quickly regaining myself I replied with a simple,
"Yeah, maybe."
I knew by the look he gave that he Knew I didn't believe it would happen, in fact I thought I'd never see my brothers again... But I didn't believe me...Deep down, I knew I would. Hell, I'd tear down Vietnam just to find them.