Ponyboy pov:

I put down the wooden box filled with stuff causing dust to fly all over the place. The villagers

gave me a few looks when I stumbled into the store. The manager there even thought I would

steal. Thankfully I had enough money to buy all of this or else I might actually have tried to. I

rummaged through the box and started organizing a bit. Then I laid down all of the items on the

church pews: A pack of cigs (Kools ofc), Toothpaste, Toothbrush, Soap (thank God), grease,

bottle of Pepsi (Coke taste diff), candy bars, bologna ( cheapest option), wheat bread, Gone

with the Wind (I had spare change), and a huge jug filled with water. After sorting it all out,

I

grabbed the copy of Gone with the Wind and headed out the back door. I found a comfortable

spot on the top of the hill. I then carefully placed my crutches and sat down. About two hours

passed before orange light glimmered in my face. The sun was setting. It was breathtakingly

beautiful, even better than the ones in New York which were covered with smoke from cars. The

sky turned from pale orange to deep-bright hues of purple, pink, and orange. It left wisps and

glitters from the sun in the air as it danced in my face. This scene got me thinking of a poem. A

poem I made long ago, about a year after Dallas left.

"

The raindrops on a petal can dry up and wither,

Like puddles dry and disappear in the summer,

Water holds life and happiness as it flows,

But it's presence can be erased without a trace to spare,

For water, you enjoy while it's still there,

When it's gone you cry with despair,

Seeping through the cracks of water is it's brother,

A liquid velvety crimson and thicker than gold itself,

Unlike water when it dries it leaves a stain,

It cannot be erased with the patter of the rain,

You are the water and I am the blood,

You left me behind but failed to erase me because,

Blood runs thicker than water

After I recited the poem, I could hear quiet laughter coming from the church. It probably was

just my imagination, almost 24 hours in here can do that to you. WIth a sigh,

I grabbed my

crutches and stood up. My leg was bothering me again, it still felt like it was still there. It hurt like

it too. I hopped on over to the entrance of the church only to see the smoke coming out of the

open windows. I didn't even realize there were more people there until someone screamed. I

turned around to see like 25 little kids excited by the smoke. The person who screamed was a

lady not too old looking either, she probably was the teacher. A fat man tried to comfort her as

she got more hysterical. I got just close enough to hear their conversation.

"Jerry, I swear five kids are missing. I ran around this hill and didn't find them. What do we

DO?!" -woman

" I'm sure the kids are around here somewhere, can't tell with all this excitement." The fat man

comforted the lady reassuringly. Suddenly, I could hear the faint screams of children coming

from inside the church. The fat man must've heard too because he let out a gasp as the woman

walied harder. Right at that moment I remembered, I must've dropped a lit cigarette. Without

thinking I ran toward the church, but the fat man caught me and held me back by my shoulders.

" Son, it's best we leave it to the firemen. It's just too dangerous to go in there." The fat man

tried to reason with me, but I was too impatient, the kids were running out of time. I wriggled

outta his grasp and hopped towards the now raging fire.

My heart pounded in my ears as I shattered a window with my crutch to get inside the church.

There was just no way in hell I would go through the flaming door. The ashes seemed to coat

my skin black as I kicked pieces of falling wood away to get to the kids. I could hear the

screaming getting louder as I found the sweat streaked kids huddled in a corner. Thinking fast, I

grabbed a child that promptly bit me and tried to throw him down a short window as gently as

possible. The screaming was about to drive me to insanity so I yelled at them to shut up and

they did. The smoke was getting to me as a wave of dizziness swept over my brain, and my

back felt really hot. I knew I had to get out of there too so I hastily grabbed two kids at a time. As

I dropped the last two, I heard someone screaming at me. They were telling me to get out of

there, and that was what I was planning to do. I dropped down my crutches through the window

and jumped out too. I momentarily forgot I didn't have a leg and rolled in the grass. The air was

like water as I gasped heavily for it. I heard gasps around me as I slowly started to lose

consciousness. Before everything went black someone said, "Glory, Look at the kid!"

My back still hurt when I fell into the darkness.