A/N- Sorry this took forever! ...But to make it up to you I made it A LOT longer then the other chapters :) Thankyou for the reviews, favourites and follows! :) And I am also aware that I spelt 'Soldier' wrong all throughout this chapter :')

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders unfortunately, all rights go to that lovely S.E Hinton

Chapter four

Pony's POV

As promised, we were all up at the crack of dawn listening to Marcus give orders of where we had to be and when we had to be there.

"Curtis. Eric, Billy and yourself will sneak into the heart of the camp. Get as many as you can out. If I feel you have been in there to long, us men around the camp will cause a distraction to give you enough time to get out. Got that?"

"Yes sir."

"And please. Try not to get killed," Marcus pulled me closer to him and whispered, "because you're my three best men in this damn troop and not having you around would be a pain in my ass." He pulled away and smirked.

"Yes sir." I chuckled.

"Why do those three get all the work?" I turned to the direction of the voice and saw Ralph sneering at me.

Boy was he a nasty piece of work. He was a real hood, and the only one that liked being here. In fact, he was the only one in this troop that signed himself up to come here.

"Because Ralphy...They're the only ones in this troop that use their heads in difficult situations. We cannot act out to aggressively with this mission. Stay calm and stick to the shadows, ya hear?"

Satisfied with the chorus of agreement that he got, he went back to describing the plan to all of us a few more times.

"Damn it Eric, you're really heavy."

"C'mon Curtis, put some muscle into it! How hard can lifting me over a fence be?"

"Ain't my fault you weigh a ton. Ever considered going on a diet?"

"Naw, I like food too much." He grinned down at me, I glared back.

"Will you two quit messing around?"

Eric and I fell silent, smirking.

A minute or two later, Eric was finally over the fence, landing on the ground with a satisfying thump.

"Omph! Crap that hurt." Eric complained.

"Maybe you should land on your feet next time and it won't hurt as much." I replied.

"Yeah, whatever. I'd like to see you get over without hurting yourself."

I cocked an eyebrow and grinned. After taking three large steps back, I ran towards the fence, swiftly leaping over it then landing on my feet. I looked over at Eric and smirked.

"Show off." He muttered. I grinned.

"Alright, let's go. Eric you follow from behind and I'll lead. Billy, look out for anyone and if they come at us, don't hesitate to shoot."

We slowly made our way into the center of the camp without being spotted by guards.

"These guards aren't the brightest. I have seriously knocked five bins over." Eric chuckled; I glanced over at him smirking.

"Guys, we are in the middle of a camp were people are getting tortured and slaughtered and you're laughing and making jokes? Seriously...Shut up." Billy's little speech sent both of us into hysterics.

"Lighten up buddy."

"Lighten up? We're in the middle of a God damn war." Billy's voice raised with every word he said.

"Shh!" I hushed him, "Do you want to get them on our backs?" Billy sighed and muttered insults at us about being hypocrites which made Eric grin.

"Which hall did Marcus want us looking in?" Eric asked, finally being serious.

"The largest one. But there isn't enough of us so we'll go look in the smallest one, bust some of them out and get the ones that aren't hurt badly to help us with the larger one."

"But none of them will have weapons." Billy muttered. I sighed.

"Good point. Okay, we'll get them out of the camp, and then get Ralph and his lot to help with the larger one."

I didn't like the idea of Ralph helping us but I knew we needed him.

"Good plan. How are we going to get into the hall?"

"There is a side door just there where the guard is standing. Eric and I'll lure him over to us and Billy, you'll creep up behind him and knock him out."

"Why don't I just shoot him?"

"That'll get the other guards' attention." I replied.

"Good point. Okay, go on."

Eric and I crept towards the large bins. Picking up a cardboard box I threw it in the guard's line of sight, immediately getting his attention. He started walking towards our hiding spot and caught sight of Eric. And in a flash, the guard pulled out a switchblade a threw it in Eric's direction, just missing his head. We both ducked.

"Omph!"

We looked up from our hiding spot and saw Billy standing next to the now unconscious soilder.

"Nice hit kid." I said. He grinned.

"Man that was a close call." Eric said, pale and a little shaken up.

"I'll say, you okay Eric?" I asked.

"Just peachy. Let's just get hurry and get some people out. I wanna get outta here.

I nodded my agreement, debating on whether I should call for help.

"Should I get Ralph and his lot? We sorta need the help. Marcus was stupid only sending us in here."

Eric looked at me with an 'Are you crazy?' expression and said,

"Why? We always do good every other time without anyone's help, and Ralph will never let us forget that we couldn't do it ourselves."

"Yeah, I know, but this camp is a lot bigger than all the other ones." I argued.

"We'll ask for their help when we need it Ponyboy." Billy piped in. I sighed and gave up.

"Fine. But first sight of trouble and I'm getting help."

They both nodded in agreement.

The three of us dragged the Vietnamese soilder behind the bins and covered him with boxes and anything else we could see. When he was fully covered, Eric, Billy and I made our way to the side door quietly.

"I'll go first?" I offered. They both nodded.

We had made it through most of the hall undetected, but because of its size we were having trouble with finding the actual prison part.

"This is getting ridiculous." Eric muttered.

"Should we split up?" Billy asked.

"No, there isn't enough of us." I replied.

"I really hate admitting this, but we shoulda gotten Ralph's help." Billy said. At that, I generally would have said 'I told you so' but getting mouthy right now wouldn't really help anyone except myself.

"Let's just keep looking." I said instead.

We kept on moving down the dark murky passage- it was like a maze in here. I was pretty sure we were underground too, the floor and walls were made of dirt and it was freezing.

"Sh, I hear voices." Billy whispered.

We stopped walking and became deadly silent, and sure enough, up ahead were two Vietnamese soilders.

We ducked behind another wall, hoping they hadn't seen us. I doubted they had, it was nearly pitch black

We waited until they were completely out of sight.

"Let's go." I whispered.

"H...hello?"

The three of us froze for a second, and then we were all looking around frantically to find the source of the voice.

"Hello?" It said again, "Help me? Please?"

Australian. That accent was Australian.

"Where are ya?" I whispered.

"Down here. Down by the floor." He replied.

I turned on my flashlight and spotted a tiny hole by the ground, bars in front of it. I then noticed the boy, possibly my age grimacing away from the light.

"Hold this!" I passed the flashlight over to Eric.

I pulled on the bars and they instantly fell apart.

"That was easy. Why haven't you tried to escape?" I asked the nameless soilder.

"I'm too weak against all the soilders in here, they'd kill me straight away. Do you have water?"

I handed him my canteen, but he couldn't hold it, he was shaking too violently.

"Here..." I held the canteen to his lips and he downed the whole thing in seconds.

"Cheers mate." He huffed.

I helped him to his feet.

"Do you think you can walk?" I asked.

He walked forward a few steps without falling.

"Yeah, I'll be okay." He said. I sighed, I knew he'd have trouble.

"Maybe we should take you out to the troop?"

"No! I have a friend being held prisoner down here somewhere. I'm not leaving without him."

Okay, do you know the way to the prison part? We've been looking for ages and we haven't found anything."

Yeah, I know the way. The ones in this passage are empty, I was by myself. My name is Jim by the way."

"Ponyboy, that's Eric and Billy." I replied. Pointing at them when I said their names.

"Ponyboy huh? That's interesting." He muttered. I ignored him.

"Almost there." Jim said.

We all sighed in relief, we had come so close to getting caught almost 50 times in the last 10 minutes and I thanked God that it was so dark down here: The darkness meant more places to hide.

Turning a corner we came across a long dirty passage, huge wooden doors lined it. Rats and mice scurried along the floor with little pieces grains in their mouths. It was real filthy.

"This is it." Jim whispered.

I grimaced at the fact that people- Our people- were living in these conditions, and I thought living out in the jungle was bad.

"Check before you open any of the doors, okay. If you hear a foreign language, don't go in, we'll go back for those ones afterwards." I explained.

"Kay boss." Eric replied.

I gave the thumbs up and we all walked to our own door. Jim walked a little more down the passage, so I guessed that his friend might have been in one of those.

Pressing my ear up against the door I had chosen I listened intently on the noises on the other side. I heard a muffled cry, but it didn't sound like anyone else was in there with him.

I tugged against the padlock and it fell apart instantly like the bars to Jim's cell. I opened the door and cautiously looked around the cell.

My eyes fell on the American soilder flinching away from me in the back corner of the small space.

I stepped in slowly so I didn't startle him.

American prisoner POV (Doug)

The padlock to my cell was taken off and my stomach dropped.

Please, please, please leave me alone. I begged silently.

I didn't know whether I could take anymore torture or beatings. I'd been in here for only a few days and already I felt like crap. I just wished they'd kill me and get it over with.

The enemy stepped into my cell and my eyes shut closed as I backed up against the wall, trying to blend into the wall.

Maybe he won't see me.

But of course he could. His footsteps came closer my way and I braced myself for a beating.

"Hey buddy, it's alright, I won't hurt you." His voice was gentle- and American. I shook my head, I must be imagining it.

A hand was placed on my shoulder and I flinched away from it, shuddering.

"Sorry." He muttered, quickly pulling his hand away.

I slowly opened my eyes and found myself staring into greeny-grey ones. I looked the young man up and down. He had auburn hair and sun tanned skin, he looked oddly familiar but I was sure that I had never seen him before in my life. He didn't belong here but he had a tough look in his eyes that made me doubt myself for a second. He wasn't more then 17-18 years old.

"You're saving me right?" The question slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it and I braced myself for a slap to the face ore something along those lines.

Instead, the tough look in his eyes was soon replaced by one of humour and he chuckled.

"Well, that depends. Do ya wanna be saved or do ya wanna stay down 'ere?"

"Saved." I replied with a smile. I tried to stand up.

He helped me to my feet, holding onto my elbow to keep me steady.

"Think you can walk?" He asked. I nodded.

"I've only been down here a few days. Me and another guy from my troop were ordered to get drinking water from the spring nearby. Unfortunately Vietnamese soilders need drinking water too." He chuckled.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Douglas, but Doug for short. What's yours?"

"Ponyboy, but you can call me Pony- for short." He grinned. "What's your troop number?"

"Ponyboy? Really? Hah, what's with the strange names over here?"

"What do you mean? Have you met another Ponyboy?" He grinned.

"Nah, you're the only one. 11467 is my troop number by the way."

A look came across his face.

"11467?" He asked.

"Yeah, why?" His eyes lit up.

"Darrel and Sodapop Curtis! Do you know them?"

"Yeah! God, are you the brother they always talk about? I thought you looked familiar, you look like Sodapop." He smiled, and his eyes lit up even more.

"C'mon, I gotta go get a few more people." Ponyboy said. I nodded and limped out the door after him.

Ponyboy walked over to the door opposite my cell and yanked on the padlock, it fell apart. I looked at it in awe. Why hadn't I tried to escape? Ponyboy saw the look on my face and grinned.

"They're all real dodgy." He said.

He leaned his head into the door and listened. Satisfied, he slowly opened the door and looked around the cell. It must of been clear because he stepped inside, me trailing behind him.

I looked at the man on the ground and knew who he was instantly. I was about to say his name to see if he was okay but Ponyboy bet me too it.

"...Steve?"

A/N- Cliffy! :D Sorry not sorry :3 Thankyou for reading! :)