Chapter ten
A/N- Sorry this has taken so long, I've been a little stressed out lately, I just started VCE early commencement, I'm 2 and a half day in and I'm already exhausted. (VCE in Australia is last 2 years of high school). But good news is, is that this only goes for a week and then its 6-7 weeks holiday's, yay! Anyway, enjoy. And thank you for reviews/views/favourites and follows!
Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders, if I did, I wouldn't be suffering through early commencement right now!
Pony's POV
I heard loud bangs and shouts coming from outside my cell door, along with piercing screams of terror and agony.
I shuddered away from the cell door as if began opening, terrified out of my wits.
I ached all over from the torture I'd been through for however long I'd been here. I don't think I've been here to long, maybe a week or two. But I was already so affected by it, mentally, and physically.
The door opened fully, revealing a very scared and pissed off looking Vietnamese soldier, one that I'd never seen before.
He yelled something at me in Vietnamese and reached for his back pocket.
He pulled out a simple hand gun, pointing it right at my chest, at that moment I knew I was going to die. I heard a gunshot in the cell next door to mine and knew that the bastards were doing some sort of extermination of prisoners.
Sick assholes.
I looked back up at my assassinator, staring straight into his eyes.
If I was going down, I wouldn't go down showing fear. They're not going to win.
I heard the clank of metal and his finger pushed back on the trigger, another gunshot was heard and I jumped, looking over myself for the bullet wound that should be through my heart right now.
The sound of a body falling to the ground took me out of my thoughts and I looked down at the ground by my feet. The almost assassinator was lying dead on the ground, blood pooling from the bullet wound in his head.
I looked up in shock, who would've killed him? Not one of his own guys, right?
Footsteps walked towards my cell door again, causing me to shy away.
When this said person walked through the door I was baffled to see that is was an American soldier.
I gawked up at him, and then down at the dead soldier by my feet.
"Son? Are you okay?" It took me a while to figure out that he was talking to me.
I nodded, incapable of coming up with an intelligent answer. I tried getting to my feet which was a terrible idea because I fell right on my face.
"Here, I'll help you, kid." The mystery man said.
"I ain't a kid." I mumbled, slightly annoyed at needing the help.
"Whatever you say. Do you remember your name, son?" He asked.
"Ponyboy Curtis." I replied confidently, in a tone that left no room for snide comments.
"Uh, so you're the Curtis kid, eh?" He whispered, mainly to himself.
I looked at him, confused. I'm the Curtis kid? What does this man know about me?
"Do you know me?" Ugh, I even sounded confused.
"Not personally, but your brothers have told me enough to make me think that I've known you my entire life." He grinned at me, a shit-eating grin that reminded me of Eric.
I didn't really comprehend what he said until after several minutes of silence.
"Wait? My brothers? Where are they? How d'you know them?" My voice came out rushed, questions just flowing out.
"They're both around here somewhere looking for ya, kid."
After that was said, it was like my legs magically decided to work again, because I rushed out of the cell and ran down the dirt-walled hall.
"Wait! It's dangerous; I have to get you out!" The man followed me, catching up easily.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me in the opposite of what I was running in.
"No, I have to find my brothers!"
"Later. You have to get out now. There are still more Gooks around here and it's too dangerous. You're injured. You'll be more useful to your brothers alive." That stopped me dead in my tracks.
I reluctantly followed him down a 'safe route' and out of the dirty and mouldy prison that had been home for a couple weeks.
As soon as I stepped outside, I was consumed by the dreadful heat and the glazing glint of the sun. I mumbled my distaste and moved forward with the nameless soldier.
He left me just outside of the camp, along with around 10 other saved prisoners. They all looked dreadful and I wondered whether I looked that bad.
"You're young, what were they planning to do with you?" One asked me. I just stared at him and thought 'I was their own personal sex toy'.
I didn't answer him. I closed my eyes, heaving a sigh.
What do I do now besides wait? To tell you the truth, if my adrenaline hadn't of disappeared as soon as I sat down I would've gone back in there and fought my way to my brothers.
Instead, I leaned against the closest tree and closed my eyes and got some much needed rest.
YoYoYoYoYo
What felt like hours later, I woke up to still the insane heat, but what was different was that my head was being cradled in what felt like someone's lap.
I jolted up in a panic, thinking that the dirty soldier had come back to get me.
"Calm down, honey." Their voice was soft and American, giving me indication that it was the dirty Vietnamese soldier. The voice also brought tears to my eyes.
I didn't want to look up in case I was dreaming and he'd disappear, so I kept my eyes down.
His hand was rubbing small circles on my back and I was mellowing at his touch.
This went on for several minutes until he got sick of waiting for me to look at him, I guess.
His finger fell under my chin and he pulled my face up to look at him.
As soon as my broken greeny-grey eyes met his soft brown one, I crumbled.
I sobbed into his shoulder, happy sobs.
"Shh, you're okay, Ponyboy." He laughed into my hair, hugging me tightly.
I know I'm acting like a baby, but wouldn't you be if you were just reunited with your best friend after what felt like an eternity?
After calming down some, I pulled away from his tight embrace to look at him. He still looked like the same old Soda, but underneath the look of love and happiness of seeing me in his eyes I could see the hardness of what war had caused.
"You're lookin' good." I joked, finally able to find my voice.
His booming laugh rang in my ears and I legitimately thought that that was the best sound in the world.
"And you look like complete and utter shit, Ponykid." I had to laugh with him. I didn't even care that he'd called me 'kid', which was a first.
"I bet I do. I feel like crap." I replied, still laughing. It was true though. It felt like I'd been hit by a Mac truck. A thought just crossed my mind. "Where's Darry?" I asked, scared of his answer.
Soda must have read the fear in my eyes because he assured me that Darry was fine and that he'd be out soon. I nodded and rested my head on his shoulder.
"So, how have ya been, Soda?" I asked, curious.
"Better then you, I would say. I've missed you, Pony."
"I've missed you too, so much. I was hoping that we'd cross paths just once and it never happened!" I said a little childishly. He rubbed my hair and I felt him nod.
"I thought we would have too. But we're together now, that's the only thing that matters now." I smiled, it was the only thing that mattered.
"What were you doing here, anyway? I didn't think your troop was part of the POW camp raids?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"We're not, we raided like, 10 million camps to look for you." I laughed at his exaggeration and in shock. They put themselves in danger to look for me? But how did they know I was gone?
"Are you with Steve and Eric?" I asked excitedly, I knew I probably shouldn't get my hopes up seeing as they might be dead but I did anyway.
"We sure are. And the rest of your troop… Well, the ones that survived the ambush." I flinched at that, thinking about Billy's promptly death.
Soda and I sat down and talked about things for what felt like hours until I slowly nodded off to sleep. I hoped that when I woke up, Darry would be there too.
YoYoYoYoYoYo
Darry's POV
It had taken us around 3 hours to clear out the whole camp and I was itching to go see Pony who had already been delighted by Soda's presence.
We were told around two hours ago by our general that he had been found and was alive and well besides his bruised body and obvious limp.
"Okay men, let's go." Marcus yelled out to all of us.
I was standing beside Two-bit and Steve who were just as nervous and scared for Pony.
"Finally." I heard Two-bit grumble.
I ran down the grimy halls towards the camp exit where my brothers would be waiting.
I looked around trying to find the familiar faces of my brothers.
I then saw the shiny blonde hair of what belonged to Soda and saw that he was supporting a slightly bigger boy with auburn hair and my face ripped into a smile bigger than the moon.
I ran over to the boys and grabbed them in a hug but quickly pulled back once I noticed Pony's sleeping form.
I chuckled and rubbed his now long and shaggy hair out of his face. He looked peaceful but alert at the same time.
I didn't want to know what he'd been through in here but I knew I had too.
"He's been asleep for around an hour." I jumped at Soda's voice, he was looking down at his little brother with a small smile on his face that warmed my heart.
Even as they got older they still loved each other more than anything.
Pony stirred and woke up, his eyes looking groggy.
"Darry?" He mumbled, looking up at me in a daze.
"Hey, little buddy. How're you feelin'?" He got up slowly then threw himself at me.
I embraced him tightly, not intending on letting him go for at least a good 10 minutes.
Pretty soon, Soda joined in on our little reuniting party which neither of us minded at all.
When we pulled apart I saw that both Pony and Soda had tears in their eyes which didn't surprise me- They were the bawl babies in the family. But what did surprise me was the feeling of hot trails falling down my face.
This whole ideal was getting a little sappy, but I didn't care at all.
Much to my distaste, I knew we would have to break this up soon because there was still work to do.
"C'mon, little brothers. We have'ta go now." They both grumbled in displeasure. "Sorry, kiddo's. We have to, there's work to be done." They both sighed in sync but got up non-the-less.
Soda and I walked while Pony limped to the others.
Two-bit ran over to us, a huge grin on his face. "Hey, kid! Long time no see, eh?" Not waiting for an answer, Two-bit grabbed Ponyboy into a giant bear hug and spun him around like a two year old.
Once Two-bit put Pony down, I saw the look of distress and fear etched on his face.
"Hey, you okay Pony?" I asked reaching for him. He flinched away from my hand and backed up a little, nodding.
"'m fine, Darry." He replied, a little breathless. He gave me a little smile, well tried to anyway, it didn't reach his green orbs.
I knew then that whatever Pony had to endure in this camp would affect him for the rest of his life, and I was afraid of finding out what did happen to him, even though I had a pretty clear idea of what might've happened.
And I also knew today was not the day to ask him questions, but I promised myself that I would soon.
A/N- I know, fluffy and crappy ending, sorry! Anyway, the Authors Note at the top was written a week ago and I'm finally in my 7 week holiday's! Wooo! So sorry for the long wait on this chapter but I'm pretty certain that you guys are used to it by now ;)
PM me ideas, guys! I'm all out! Anyway, Merry Christmas, hope you all have a great month and get lots of pressies and eat a ton of food. :)