Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders, all rights go to S.E Hinton.
A/N- 2nd chapter done. :) It is a short one like the first chapter, but it's longer :D

Chapter two

Ponyboy's POV

Man were my feet starting to hurt. We were only three hours into our nine hour trek and already half the men in my troop were exhausted- including me. The only person who seemed slightly cheery was Eric, who was whistling Elvis's songs.
"Shut-up Eric." I laughed as he smacked me over the head.
"Lighten up Curtis. It ain't everyday you get to take a long nice walk in a foreign country." The shit-eating grin he gave me made me laugh.
How the guy managed to even pretend to be happy in a place like this was beyond me.
"Are you guys trying to get the enemy onto us or something? Hush up." Marcus, always the party pooper. I heard Eric chuckle beside me and gave a little chuckle myself, abruptly stopping. I shouldn't be laughing- not in this hell-hole anyway. I'd rather feel depressed. This place doesn't deserve happiness or laughter, not with all the pain it's caused people to feel.
"Y'all are crazy." Billy quietly said. He was the youngest in the troop at the age of 16 and he rarely ever spoke. He reminded me of Johnny a little; he just didn't get beaten up by his dad and neglected by his mother for breathing their air. He and Johnny spoke the same too, very western.
"I think we're all crazy kid." Eric replied. Even though Eric and I were only a year older then Billy, we called him kid, and let me tell you- he hated it.
"I ain't a kid." He sulked.
"Sure you are, kid." I replied, grinning when he gave me a dirty look.
After that I decided to take Marcus' advice and shut-up. Boy was this going to be a long six hours.

Three hours had passed and we hadn't had any encounters yet, which was really strange. Normally we'd find at least 6 strays or get attacked by another troop. Maybe we were having a lucky streak- Or maybe we'd stumbled into the safe zone, but I doubted it.
Then, as if they'd read my mind, I saw a figure approaching to my left.
"Get down!" I yelled. We all fell to the ground as guns started going off.
"I'll check to see how many people there are." I called over to Marcus, and receiving a nod in response. Slowly rising my head, I saw around 6 Vietnamese ducking behind trees and shooting at us every so often. I quickly ducked, just missing a bullet that whizzed past my head.
"There're 6 of 'em Marcus." I yelled over the chaos.
"Good, that means we out-number them by 5." Marcus liked having the upper-hand.
We all get our loaded guns and start firing in the enemy's direction, my first shot instantly hitting someone, he fell to the ground unmoving and my stomach churned.
In a matter of one minute they were all on the ground dead or close to death. The guilt started to build up inside of me. I felt light-headed and queasy, but we had to move on...So I pushed my guilt to the side. I can feel guilty when we reach our new camp.
"Is anyone hit?" Marcus asked us all and received 11 'no's'.
"Thank God." He mumbled quietly.
I guess I jinxed us by the thought of having a lucky streak today.

"Okay, we're here men. Set up camp and take a break."
We all sighed in relief. This is the best news that we had received all day.
Quickly setting up my tent and unpacking my duffel-bag, I remembered the letter from Soda and Darry unopened in my pocket. I took it out and read it, my stomach churning. Was I going to get bad news?
Dear Pony,
I hope you're doing alright. Our troop was ambushed a couple nights ago, don't worry, we're all okay, but a guy named Steven was shot and didn't survive. Be safe Ponyboy, we will find you eventually, so keep a low profile. Two-bit and Steve say hey. Love you kiddo.
-Sodapop and Darry Curtis.
I smiled, looking down at Darry's hand-writing. Then sadness washed over me. I was too not have my brothers here with me.
I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote back.
Dear Soda, Darry, Two-bit and Steve,
I'm alright. It's good to hear that you're all okay, I've been worried. Very unfortunate for Steven though, I hope he didn't have kids. My troop just moved camp and we were attacked on the way, no one was injured or killed. I killed someone though, and I feel guilty as hell. Yeah, yeah I know. It isn't my fault...but still. I hope I see you guys soon, I miss you. Love you all.
-Ponyboy Curtis.
I put the letter in an envelope an addressed it to Sodapop and Darrel Curtis, troop 11467.
I walked over to Marcus' tent and let myself in.
"Hey Marcus, I need this posted." He took the letter from me and set it with the others.
"Alright Curtis. Get some sleep, we're waking early tomorrow. There's a POW camp on the other side of the river and there's people who need savin'."
"Yes sir." Wow that sounded complex. So much for keeping a low profile.

A/N- Well if you're still there, thanks for reading!
Eric, Marcus, Billy and Steven are my characters. And for those who are unsure of what POW stands for, it means 'Prisoner Of War'. They were camps where they took hostages/prisoners, and killed/tortured information out of people. :/
Please review, I'd love opinions..anything. :)