A/N- Well, G'day! Sorry for the late update- Again. I know, I suck! I hope this was worth the wait :)
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Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders unfortunately. But S.E Hinton does and she is one amazing woman!

Chapter eight

Pony's POV

To anyone that saw me right now would think I was dead on the inside.

I just stared at the wall of me cell, not moving. Sort of like the door is open but nobody is home. That was how I felt.

On the inside, I was raging. There was far too many emotions floating around my head and they were the only things I could concentrate on.

Why me? Why did anybody have to go through this?

Wet trails started rolling down my face silently. I wiped them away angrily.

Don't let them see you cry. It means they win. I scolded myself, mentally.

I quit crying and glared hard at the door instead, hoping that the next person to come in here will get the point and not bother me.

That wouldn't happen though. They had the upper hand.

I'd been here for at least a week. I could only tell by the daily visits they had to my cell.

I was black and blue from the beating I'd endured and I ached everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

I also felt embarrassed.

How could I let that monster do that to me?

I should've fought back more. But I knew deep down that it was no use. After the first few times I was too weak anyway.

First few times.

What would Soda and Darry think if they found out? Would they hate me? Would they think of me as disgusting? Or would they not care and love me anyway?

I'd like to believe that they wouldn't care but it's hard to think that when I, myself feel disgusting.

What about Mum and Dad? What would they be thinking if they were looking down on me right now? Would they see me as pathetic?

All these negative thoughts floated around my head like the many emotions.

Anger. Sadness. Embarrassment. Shame. Self-loathing.

They were all there, taunting me.

Stop thinking, Ponyboy. Calm down. The more rational part of my brain thought.

At that moment, my stomach rumbled, turning my attention to that instead of the pain. I then remembered that someone had dropped a bowl of rice off for me earlier today.

I crawled over to the cell door, too weak to stand up and walk. I grabbed the food and quickly scurried back to the corner of the cell where I felt most safe.

After downing my tiny ration of rice and bottle of water I very quickly started to feel down again.

"Help me, Darry." I whispered out loud, knowing very well that he couldn't hear me. But I wouldn't stop hoping that he'll find me. He is my big brother after all. He'll save me.

At that thought, I smiled. Of course he'll save me- Soda too. When Steve tells them what happened, they'll all come and save me, and the rest of the poor souls in this camp.

My smile turned into a grimace when I heard footsteps walking towards my cell door.

I let out a low whimper when the cell door opened, revealing the monster that made me feel disgusting.

I was hoping for the one that beat me, I could take another beating. But I couldn't take this, not again.

"Help, Mum! Please!" I cried out in my panic. But she couldn't help me anymore. "Leave me alone!" I shouted at him instead. He only chuckled.

"Be quiet, American!" He snapped harshly when I cried out for Soda.

I shut up.

The man sighed mockingly, clicking his tongue. No doubt trying to torture me a little with waiting before it actually happens.

I finally puckered up enough courage and glared at him. It probably isn't the best idea in my situation, but Darry always did tell me I never used my head.

I wish I listened to him. The Vietnamese soldier just seemed to get pissed off.

The monster walked over to me and slapped me hard across the face.

God that hurt. I gasped, stunned at the strength of the blow.

He laughed at my sign of weakness.

"Okay, American. I'll go easy on you if you give me correct information." Is he serious? I already told them that I wasn't high rank. I was only a 17 year old kid and I didn't have any top secret information.

He slapped me hard across the face, followed by a kick to the ribs. But I knew that him beating me up was just a warm up to what was actually going to happen and I cringed at the thought.

"I don't know anything!" I snapped, my ribs still hurting from the blow.

He sighed angrily and continued to beat me until I was lying on the ground, moaning and gasping for air.

He started to pull off my cargo pants, a sly grin on his ugly face.

"Tell me a name and I'll go easy." A name? Okay, if that's what he wants.

"Timothy Shepard, troop 1062." I felt bad; Tim had died in action a few months before I was shipped off. His whole troop was killed. 35 men, lost. I remember Curly's face when he had told me about it. He was trying hard not to cry in front of me and I felt terrible just standing there, watching him struggle.

That was the last time I had seen him. He over dosed a day or two later. Angela found him on his bathroom floor.

I wondered how Angela was doing. I'm not going to lie, the girl scares me, but thinking about her was the only thing my brain would come up with to distract me from the torture ahead.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by a hand groping my ass.

I gasped and shied away from the man in front of me.

"I gave you a name! Leave me alone now!" I whimpered loudly.

"I said I'd go easy if you gave me a name, not stop!" He said, cruelly.

"Leave me alone! Please!" I said desperately.

To no avail. I was stripped off my clothes and put into the worst torture anyone could ever endure.

"Darry..." I whimpered, not strong enough to get the disgusting pig on top of me off.

I didn't put up a fight; I just wished that this would be over soon.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxxxxx xxx

Steve's POV

We'd been trekking through the jungle for just over a week and there was still no sign of the kid.

"Randle I think there's a base camp a few days away. We'll stop there and find a map of all the camps." Marcus puffed.

I sighed. "Fine." We were running out of food anyway.

"Thank God." Ralph muttered under his breath.

Xxooxxoo

We'd finally made it to base camp about an hour ago, and Marcus insisted that we go eat food before we died of starvation.

"Aye, Randle!" Ralph shouted, turning a few heads.

"What d'ya want?" I muttered dryly.

"When we get them maps to the POW camps, I ain't comin'." He slurred, drunk. "I never really like the kid, anyway." He mumbled under his breath loudly.

"You're coward." Eric spat. "And besides, he ain't the one we're savin'. There's a lot of soldiers being captured everyday by the Gooks, and I sincerely hope you're one of 'em, asshole." He then stood up quickly and walked out, not wanting to cause a bigger scene.

"I second that, coward." It was a crappy come-back and the sorta thing you'd say in high school, but Eric had already set the score on the douche-bag this time.

I ran after Eric. "Man, what's up?" I called out to him.

When I finally caught up to his long strides I yanked on his arm and turned him to face me.

"What the matter, Eric?" I asked as softly as I could. I wasn't exactly the nicest person.

"He was my best friend!" He yelled, dropping to his knees. I just stared at him, waiting for the anger to get out of his system.

"I've lost so many friends the past few months, seen death, hell, I've ever caused death. The government sends us out here, makes us see all this shit and then IF we survive, they send us home and expect us to get on with our lives like nothing has happened? I've got a kid at home! I won't be able to look after her, no work place would take in an ex soldier!"

I patted him on the back. Comforting people was more Soda's thing. "Pony's the toughest kid I know. We'll get him back in one piece."

"I really hope so. I couldn't imagine what it would do to Soda and Darry if he was gone." Shit! Darry and Soda!

"I gotta go write them a letter!" I hollered over my shoulder.

I ran to the contact building, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote:

Guys
I'm sorry I didn't contact you sooner.
I've been really busy. I'm really sorry, they took Pony.
I couldn't do anything, but me and what's left of our troop
is going to go look for him.
Again, I'm so sorry. I'll get him back unharmed.
-Steve Randle.

I stuck it in an envelope and wrote Darry's name and troop number on it.

"Can you please send this off straight away?" I asked the man behind the desk. The man nodded and looked over the envelope.

"No, actually. There's no point." He answered.

"What? You send this damned letter to them, now!" I was outraged.

"Give it to them yourself." He spat back.

"I don't know where they are! This letter is important, send it!" I spat back just as harsly.

He sighed. "They're on the other side of the camp. Walk and give the damn letter to them yourself and stop wasting my time." He grumbled. Someone ought to go to bed.

"Troop 11467 is here? Now?" I asked, he rolled his eyes.

"Yes! Now get!"

My thanks was flipping him the bird and sprinting out.

I ran around like a crazy person until I found an information tent.

"'Ey, you know where troop 11467 is?"I asked, in a rush.

"American, Australia or British?" The man asked, expression bored.

"American." I was jumping up and down by now.

"They're just past the hospital wing, next to the east kitchen. There is also a bathroom right next door if you need that too." He said sarcastically, noticing my fidgeting.

"Thanks sir." I replied, not in the mood to fight back.

An hour and 10 stops for directions later, I saw the back of my best friends head.

"Soda!" I called out, happy but gutted at the same time.

He swivelled around at the mention of his name. He caught sight of me and started towards my direction.

"Steve! God, we were so worried! We haven't heard from you or Pone for ages!" He smiled now, but I knew he wouldn't be smiling soon. "Where is Pony? Is he here?"

I stayed silent, hoping he'd catch on without me having to tell him.

"Steve, where is Ponyboy?" He asked. Determination in his voice.

I looked up at him; sad eyes met his determined ones.

"I don't know, Soda." I whispered, loud enough for him to hear.

"You don't know?" He asked angrily. I nodded.

"They took him someplace, Soda. We were ambushed and they took him." I was starting to feel guilty now. It was my job to look after him.

"Steve?" I jumped, started, and turned around. I was now face to face with Darry, and by the look on his face I knew he had heard that whole conversation.

"You were supposed to look after him, Steve!" Soda hollered, misty eyed.

I looked down, ashamed. "I know." I mumbled.

"We'll go looking! Right Darry?" Soda asked, nearly pushing himself to breaking point.

"Of course, Pepsi. Calm down." Darry scolded softly. He was taking it a lot better than Soda, but I knew that that was just an act to make Soda and himself feel better.

Inside he would be fuming.

"Well what's going on here and where was my invite?" I sighed, leave it to Two-bit.

"Not now, Two-bit." Darry said angrily.

That wiped the cheerful look off his face. He then looked at me, then around me, searching for somebody that wasn't there.

"Where's Pone? I heard that he was with you." I already knew by his tone that he knew what was going on.

"he's MIA, but we're gonna go find him." Soda sniffled.

Xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx

Darry's POV

It felt like my insides were burning.

Maybe they were?

I'd just been told that my baby brother was gone. I just hoped that didn't mean dead. That would kill Soda.

I had agreed that we were gonna go look for him and that wasn't a lie.

I'd risk my life if it meant saving either one of my brothers.

"We'll head south first. That's the smallest POW camp closest to us and where Pony was taken." Pony's troop leader, Marcus explained. He was an okay guy.

15 of us sat around a table in the west kitchen. Pony's entire troop and a few guys from ours had agreed to participate in this wild goose chase, even if we were ordered not to.

There was one guy named Ralph that I didn't like. I'd have to keep an eye on that one.

His shitty expression told me he'd rather be anywhere else but here.

"We'll pack and head out tomorrow morning. 5am sharp." With that, we all piled out and headed in different directions. Soda, Two-bit, Steve and Eric followed me.

Eric seemed real cut up about the whole situation and it made me wonder about their friendship.

Ponyboy didn't really make any friends after the whole ordeal with Johnny and Dally.

"So, you and Pony were-are friends?" I stated, trying to make small talk.

"Yeah, he's my best friend. Well, that's how I see him. I'm probably just a friend to him." He admitted. "He's the only person I can talk to over here, Billy too, but Billy's dead." I shut up then, not wanting to upset him.

We walked the rest of the way in silence.

"Alright, go get packed!"I broke the silence when out troop tent came into view.

They all walked towards it while I hung back.

"Comin', Darry?" Soda asked, noticing my hesitation.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes." I smiled at him, a fake smile that I knew he saw straight through, but he nodded anyway and walked on, taking the hint that I wanted to be alone.

When Soda was out of sight, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a picture of the whole family.

It was taken a few months before Mum and Dad died.

We were all cheerful; not knowing what horrors lied ahead.

I walked over to the little lake we had by base and sat down.

I did something I never thought I'd do again- prayed.

I sent a silent prayer to anyone that was listening. Asking for my brother to be alive and safe.

I hoped someone heard it.

Xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx

Pony's POV

It felt like I'd been here for months, but I knew it had just been a little over a week.

My beating had gotten worse after they found out I gave them a phony name.

I begged and pleaded with them, telling them I didn't know he was dead.

Of course they saw right through me.

I'd also been moved to another cell. I wasn't stupid; I knew where I'd been placed.

I was right by the torture rooms. I heard every scream, plea and cry for help and I knew I'd end up there sooner or later.

I hope it's later. I didn't think I could take it.

I wasn't being fed as regularly either, and I was starving.

I looked up in horror as I saw my cell door opening, I'd been to deep in thought to realize.

I was grabbed under my arms and yanked to my feet painfully.

My body protested, I was smarting and aching so badly I nearly fell over.

"Walk!" Was the harsh reply I got to stumbling over my own feet, this man wasn't gonna take my shit.

I willed myself to walk, the Vietnamese soldier holding my arm tightly.

We finally stopped in front of a closed door, and I knew where this lead.

I fought against the man, terrified of what lied ahead for me.

He grabbed me by the hair and pulled, causing me to topple over, whimpering.

"We just want name. Behave!" He barked.

I knew I was going to get the beating of my life but stopped struggling anyway.

He pulled open the door and dragged me in, tying me to the chair in the middle of the room.

"What's this?" I asked, trying to loosen the binds.

He ignored me and walked out of the room, leaving me alone in the darkness.

It gave me time to think of fake names I'd give them and the bruises I'd have tomorrow.

A/N- Thank you for reading lovelies! Sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes.
Give me feedback! And ideas! I might only have 3-4 more chapters for this story, I'm dragging it a bit and I hate having you wait so long between each update! Sorry about that!
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