Disclaimer: If I owned the outsiders I wouldn't be writing here. All credit to the remarkable book goes Miss. Hinton.
Chapter Two-Kidnapped 2
Sodapop POV.
I was just setting in on my plate of chocolate cake when Steve burst in through the door.
"Hey Steve, nice of you to burst in. How's it going?" He just grunted in response and went for the refrigerator. He rifled through it for a while before coming out with a beer.
"Where did you get that from? Darry said absolutely no beer in the refrigerator. If the State saw that they would take me and Pony away." He gave me a look.
"What Darry and the State don't know won't kill them." I let it drop and changed the subject. "Where's Pony and Johnny. Didn't you give them a ride?" This caught his attention.
"Ponyboy and Johnny aren't home yet?" I shook my head, confused.
"Dammit, I told Pony to walk home. He assured me he would. I thought he would've told Johnny. I had to leave school early today." Had to or wanted to, I thought to myself
"Well then where the hell is he? You know Darry's is gonna blow his top if Ponyboy isn't home before he is. He must still be at the school. Come on." I said as I grabbed my coat of the counter and went to the living room to look for my shoes. How so like Ponyboy to forget that he was supposed to walk home.
As Steve was driving back to the school, we passed a white van. It looked kinda out of place here; it seemed too clean and well put together to belong to a greaser, yet not gaudy enough to belong to the Socs. I let it drop, shouldn't worry about nothing, especially when I had a little brother MIA. I could tell as soon as Steve pulled into the parking lot that Ponyboy wasn't there. There were a few people scattered around, but they were all Socs, definitely not Ponyboy or Johnny. A few glared at us as we passed.
"Do you think he's practicing for track?" I asked, already knowing the answer. I would've remembered if it was a track practice day. Steve shrugged and drove around the school to the track field. It was empty. I was beginning to worry. Steve piped in.
"Maybe they're walking home and we just missed them." I relied on Steve's word and nodded in agreement. I kept my eyes peeled the entire way home, but saw nothing. When we returned to the house I saw Darry's truck in the driveway. Great, now I had to explain to Darry that I had no idea where our youngest brother or his best friend was.
As soon as I stepped into the front door, I sensed something was wrong. It was completely quiet. My paranoia increased when I saw Darry, Dally, and Two-bit just sitting in the living room with their heads down. Both Dally and Two-bit looked up with relief as me and Steve came in. Darry however stood to his feet, irritation drawn on his face.
"Where the hell have you been, Sodapop?" Where was this anger coming from? He usually saved it for Ponyboy.
"What're you all about Darry? I was out looking for Pony and Johnny." I retorted. Darry's face suddenly changed to fright.
"Where's Pony and Johnny?" God, didn't I just say I didn't know?
"I don't know Darry, that's why we were out looking for them." I didn't mean to add so much sarcasm to the statement but I couldn't help it. Instead of getting angry at my sarcasm, Darry's face just turned whiter. It was starting to freak me out.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Dally looked at Two-bit before responding with a question. "Haven't you guys heard the news?" I shook my head.
"There have been kidnappings all over the town. At least five now. The news channel just issued a warning to keep all kids indoors, until the fuzz can catch the guy." Darry interrupted to add his own bit.
"So I come home to tell you and Pony to stay home, only to find an empty house." Darry sounded annoyed again. "Now have either of you seen Pony or Johnny?"
"Wasn't Steve supposed to give Pony and Johnny a ride home from school?" Two-bit asked. Now it was Steve's turn to be annoyed.
"Yeah, but I ditched school a little after lunch. I told the kid to walk home with Johnny. Not my fault he didn't listen." My head was begging to swim. There was a kidnapper loose in the town and both my kid brother and friend were nowhere to be found. This couldn't be happening, not now. I felt like I would throw up, but instead I turned around and ran back out the door before any of the gang could catch me. As I ran down the street, I could hear the gang yelling for to come back.
I had to find Pony. Johnny too. There was no way they were gone. They were probably at the lot. Or the park. Ponyboy just forgot to come home or something and was hanging out with Johnny. Yeah, that was it. I tried to convince myself over and over again. Maybe they were here or there. But each time I went by one of their favorite hangout spots and it was empty, my heart sank a little. I was on the road back to the school, still searching in vain. I was about to turn around when I came upon a scratched up blue piece of cloth. It looked familiar, so I picked it up, only to drop it again out of horror. It was Ponyboy's blue backpack. It looked like it had gone through the mill, all scratched up and frayed. Pony must have dropped it. Doing what? I could only pray it wasn't what I was thinking. I turned around and for some reason, went back to the park. I don't why I ended up there; maybe I felt Pony was there. When I got there, instead of Pony, I saw a big white van. In fact it looked a lot like the one I had seen while looking for Pony. Was it following me? My stomach turned ice cold as three buff guys got out. Nowhere near as big as Darry, but they were still pretty big. I definatly couldn't take them. They stood about five feet away from me, just staring at me with sneering grins. I had a really bad feeling about this.
"Hey fellas. Anything I could help you with?" I asked. God, please say no. What I could only guess to be the leader of the big guys turned his sneer into a creepy smile.
"Boys, why don't we show this young man just what he could help us with." The other two guys cracked their knuckles in a threatening way before advancing me. Oh crap. Why did I leave the house? I should've just stayed there instead of running out to find Pony and Johnny. One of the last thoughts I had before the guys were on me was a silent plea for the gang to come and help. One of the guys put a cloth over my face and I felt myself slip away from conscience. Just before I did though, I could've sworn I heard an oddly familiar female voice in the distance.
Angela's POV.
Damn Curly and Tim. They had ended up chasing away another boyfriend. Every time I got a boy, by brothers never let me keep him. They said I was too 'young' to be dating. I was sixteen, dammit! I stalked off towards the direction of the park, hoping to vent some anger before I had to return home to my overbearing brothers. As I got closer to the park I saw a large white van. Movement caught my eye. Three tuff guys were holding somebody down. Looks like somebody's getting jumped. Careful not to attract attention to myself I crept closer, only to realize that the guy getting jumped was Sodapop Curtis. Without thinking I ran over to help.
"Hey! Hey, Leave him alone" To tell you the truth, I don't know why I tried to save the middle Curtis brother. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's cute. But I really had a crush on the youngest one. Ponyboy. The big dudes looked up. Sodapop seemed to have passed out.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Does the little girl want to save her boyfriend?" He leered at me. One of the others spoke up. "Hey, Ralph, can't we just leave her alone? We already have too many." The man stopped leering to glare at the speaking man. "There is no such thing as too many. Now shut up and get her." I froze up inside. Too many what? I knew if I didn't start running, they were going to get me. I whirled around and ran back towards home. I was fast. But they were faster. The one called Ralph grabbed me and slammed me to the ground. I tried to wiggle away but he was too strong and heavy. The other two come up and one put a wet cloth over my nose and mouth. I breathed in the sickly sweet smell. Ugh! I started to get drowsy all of the sudden. Oh my god. Were they drugging me? Slowly I stopped fighting, until I finally slipped into sleep.
Okay, so like I promised before, this chapter is considerably longer. I'm sorry I kinda squished together how Angela and Soda got kidnapped, but I decided this would be simpler. Please, please, please, tell me how you liked this chapter. For any questions, concerns, or comments, please click the button below.
