I was so wrapped up that the man was Randy, I could hardly pay attention to what I was doing. It was extremely dangerous that I was so distracted, but I just followed Mark every step of the way.

Suddenly Mark gasped, grabbed my shoulder, and tugged me downward. "Get down" he whispered. I had no idea what was going on. "What's going.." "Shh." He interrupted. I shut up.

After 20 minutes I decided to relax a little bit. Mark was still tensed up. I laughed silently and leaned back. "Sodapop, you should get back in position." "Why, no one is coming?" "I can sense it. Someone's coming." I decided to get back into position.

Then I heard rustling, so I tensed up like Mark. Then I heard a gunshot. Like I did before, I closed my eyes. I felt something whiz past me. Ha. I thought. They missed.

I opened my eyes and I heard another, so I shut them. Shit. I thought. My eyes were open, and all I could feel was pain. Horrible pain, like a literal hole in my heart. I've been hit. I couldn't talk-all I could do was clutch my chest. The bullet hit right in the middle of my heart. I looked down at my hands and they were dripping with blood.

I had trouble breathing, and I laid on the ground trying not to make any noise. "Sodapop! What are you…" Mark started, then he saw me. "Oh my God…" he began inching toward me. "NO." I said. "I'll be fine. Just let me here." "No, I'm not gonna leave a man behind." "Just do it!" I said, wincing.

God it hurt so much.

I coughed up some blood, and my vision was getting blurrier and blurrier until I could no longer see a thing. One by one, each of my senses failed. One by one, each of my organs failed. One by one, everything in my body failed. I finally stopped breathing.

As if it was next in line, my eyelids closed. They never opened again.

I felt alive. All of a sudden, I felt as if I were floating. I looked down, and I was myself again. No bullet. No camo uniform. I was wearing a regular casual outfit I usually wore around the house on a weekend. Looking ahead, I saw the silhouettes of two figures. One was somewhat shorter than the other. God? Jesus? I wondered. Am I in heaven? I was in a really nice place, so I thought I might as well have been. I inched closer to the figures, and I could make out their features. They were a man and a woman. The man had brown hair, the woman had blond…"MOMMY! DADDY!" I screamed, and ran full blast to them. I began to cry really hard as I hugged them. They hugged me back, which made me cry harder. I was in Heaven. I was with my Mom and Dad again…it was a miracle. My Dad rubbed my back and my Mom said "Hey baby." Those two words made me so unbelievably happy that it was my MOM saying them! My beautiful caring mom who died in an auto wreck along with my Dad. All those memories that made me cry back on Earth were coming back to my head. I was extremely excited.

Once they pulled away, I looked at their faces. They were smiling the biggest smile I've ever seen and they were looking into my eyes. My dad then looked over my head, sort of looking west. He nodded. "Someone's here for you." He said. I was overjoyed that he said something, just like my mom.

I turned around, and gasped. "JOHNNY! DALLY!" I screamed. I started crying again as they laughed when I hugged them. Johnny had no more burns, no more cuts. Perfect condition, not even a scar or a bruise from his parent's beatings. Dally looked perfectly fine too. No bullet, just like me. "Ayyyyyy Soda." They said. "Soda's here?" A voice said. Who could that have been? A silhouette of a tall guy with blonde curly hair came into view.

Bob.

I hated Bob on Earth, but for some reason now it was like he was my best friend. "Hey Bob!" I said, giving him a hug. "Hey! We've been waiting for you!" He said when I pulled away. He put his arm around Johnny and Johnny laughed. I began to laugh. "This guy brought me here!" Bob said, giving him a noogie. We all laughed. "And I thank him for that!" He said with a smile. "Well, you're welcome." Johnny said laughing. "Hey, Soda," My dad said behind me, my mom next to him like when I first arrived. I beamed. I still couldn't get over the fact that my parents were right there. "Wanna see something cool?" He led me to what looked like a balcony made of gold. This place was beautiful. "Look down." He said. I did as told.

I gasped. It was Earth! I could see what Two-Bit, Steve, Darry, and Ponyboy were doing. I could hear their thoughts and feel their feelings. "Wow!" I said. "That's how Mom and me watched you, bud." Dad said, patting my back as I laid on my stomach to watch. "We watched you guys from up here too." Johnny and Dally said in unison with a smile.

I saw my funeral. It made me kinda sad. Darry was crying, and so was Steve and Two-Bit. I couldn't find Ponyboy though.

Curious, I looked at my house. There was Pony. My eyes widened at his condition. I not only saw it, I felt it, and it hurt. He literally dried out his tear ducts. All his tears were cried out, and the shoulders of his shirts were soaking wet. But yet he was wailing. Bawling more than I could ever imagine. He was rolling around and around on our bed producing more tears every time he hit my side. I heard his thoughts and they were REALLY sad. "They're all dead! Everyone I care about!" was one of them. Another that I heard was "GONE. GONE. GONE. GONE." Over and over again. "I AM ALONE. ALONE. ALONE. ALONE." Was a newer one. I stood up and walked away. I could no longer watch that. "You okay, Soda?" Johnny asked. I pointed to the balcony. "See for yourself." He said. Him, Johnny, my parents, and even Bob and Randy went to the other end. "Wow." They all said. My parents turned away immediately. I walked over to them. Dally, Johnny, Bob, and Randy looked like Two-Bit does whenever he watches Mickey Mouse when they were watching Ponyboy.

About an hour later I guessed, talking to my parents and Dally, Johnny, Bob, and Randy STILL watching Earth like it was a movie at the drive-in or something, I heard an uprising from the guys. "Soda, y-you gotta get over here…" Bob said. He seemed kinda scared. I looked at my parents weirdly, and they shrugged.

"O…k…?" I said, confused. As soon as I saw what they were looking at, my eyes widened and I screamed "NO!"