Darry opened the letter. He could hear the sound of the car driving away. He would have chased them, but he knew they would have probably killed him. Tim got there faster than Two-Bit thought he would. He brought one of his boys with him. Darry read the letter aloud.
We have the two little greasers. You can have them back, but only if you greasers fight us in a rumble tomorrow night. If you win, you can have the pipsqueaks back, but if you lose. You know the drill. Meet us behind the school at the halfway marker.
Will T. and the I.B.K.
Darry threw the sheet of paper down and put his hands on his head. At
"Why would they want Ponyboy? Why him?"
"I-I know why."
Everyone looked at Steve. He barely got the words out of his mouth. Steve was real nervous. He told them about the night before. He gave himself all the blame. He didn't blame Tim for anything.
Darry looked at Steve for a minute. His eyes flashed like they did when he saw Paul at the rumble. Darry ran to Steve and punched him good across the head. Steve fell onto the floor. Tim and his boy had to hold back Darry. And that was no easy task. Two-Bit was busy holding back Soda. For the first time in his life, he wanted to beat the heck out of his best friend.
Everyone eventually calmed down and Darry said calmly,
"Everyone. Get out."
When he said that, he meant everyone. They all got out of there.
Soda just felt weird lying in his bed without Ponyboy beside him. It took him a good two hours before he finally fell asleep. Darry just kept staring out of the window. He just wanted to go out there and find Ponyboy. But he knew the moment that he would walk onto the territory he would get shot or something. He decided it would be safer to just enter the rumble. He prayed that Ponyboy would be okay.
Pony woke up. He looked around and saw he was in a dark room. The only light that shone was coming through the window. His hands and mouth were free now. He heard movement in the corner and Curly stood up.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"Looks like we're in an empty room."
Curly pulled himself up to the window. He looked out of it and ducked right back down.
"We're in I.B.K.'s territory."
"Well that's just perfect."
"Yeah well….Hold it. Someone's coming."
"Act like you're unconscious."
Curly did it with no hesitation.
An I.B.K. stuck his head in and went right back out.
"How long, do we have to do that?" asked Curly.
"Keep quiet. They're talking about something."
Pony leaned his ear against the wall. He heard enough information to know what was going on.
"They challenged the other greasers to a rumble tonight. When they leave, we can break out of here."
"Well what are we supposed to all day."
Curly looked at the watch he stole the other day.
"It's 8:00 am."
"Play dead."
"Great."