Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton owns the rights to these characters.

Trigger warning for a gun and blood.

Chapter 11

I don't even know anymore, help me.

I stumbled up the stairs and looked around, finding 3 socs coming my way. I fought them off the best I could.

The first one lunged at me with their blade in their hand, but I dodged and mid-air, I grabbed their hand and sent them flying down the stairs.

The others teamed up, one of them trying to grab me while the other swiped at me with their blade. I tried my best to dodge but as it continued, I found myself getting cut more and more.

I was gasping and cussing at them, and I elbowed the one who was holding me in the ribs, causing them to fall to the ground.

That left me one more, though I knew more were coming. The soc grabbed their blade and started to me, but I caught on and flipped him, punching him to make sure he stayed down.

Then I ran as fast I could into the kitchen and reached the phone, nearly falling over from running over.

Dialing the numbers to our home phone, I looked at the map that was conveniently sprawled on the kitchen table of our town, finding the address.

The phone started ringing. Please pick up, Darry. Please! I prayed. The phone picked up.

"Hello?" I heard Darry's voice on the other end.

"Darry? Darry, this is Soda. Ponyboy and I, we got taken by some socs!" I said, catching my breath. I could practically feel Darry sigh of relief.

"Soda?! Soda, oh my god, I've missed you so much! Where are you, tell me?!" he asked.

"We're on the soc side of town, 4243 Maplewood Road, hurry!" I told him, hearing the door open and more socs stumbling in.

"Okay, okay, I'm gonna call the police, stay there and stay safe! I'll be there in 10!" Darry told me and I hung up. The socs found me as soon as I slammed the phone down.

I smiled and they glared at me. Oh boy.

10 minutes felt like forever. 10 minutes I had been fighting for my life, waiting for backup.

I was tired and felt weak and my knees felt like they were about to buckle. But I kept on fighting.

After like, the 5th soc, I had beaten down, I stopped to catch my breath. There were cuts all over me and some hadn't stopped bleeding. My face throbbed from all the punches I had taken.

I heard the door open behind me and I turned around by pure instinct with my hands up, ready to fight more. Except it wasn't more socs. It was Darry.

"Darry? Is… Is that you?!" I asked, smiling.

"Sodapop, oh my god!" Darry said, running over to me. At that point, my knees gave out and I half-fell, half-ran into a hug with Darry. I sat kneeling on the floor, hugging him so tightly.

"Oh Soda… I thought we lost you like we did Johnny and Dally, and glory, you've got cuts all over you, are you okay?" he asked, becoming protective.

I stifled a sob from escaping my mouth. I nodded and hugged him again.

I didn't want to let go, and I never was going to ever again.

Darry broke away from me, and I was confused why. Then someone slammed into me. I fell to the ground. I looked up to see who it was. It was Steve.

"Soda, it is you! Oh, I missed you so much!" Steve said, laughing out of pure joy. I hugged him back and patted his head.

"Good to see you too, buddy," I told him. Two-Bit walked in, also giving me a big hug. I missed the guys so much, and I think they missed me too.

"Was I gone a long time?" I asked after breaking apart from the many embraces.

"Nearly a day, so not that long, but it felt like forever, we were worried about you and Ponyboy. Speaking of, where is he?" Darry said, looking around anxiously.

"He's down in the basement, holding off the other socs. We oughtta help him out, c'mon," I told them, getting up with some help from Darry.

I turned to Steve and Two, but Steve had gone pale.

"Steve, what's wrong?" I asked, noticing he was holding something.

"Whatcha got there?" I asked.

"It's a box, I know this… Dally showed it to me once," Steve replied, his eyes transfixed on the box.

"And? It's important, why?" Two-bit added in a slightly passive-aggressive manner.

"It's supposed to have an unloaded gun and 5 bullets in it. Except in this one, the gun's already been taken out and 2 bullets are missing…" Steve explained, looking up at me. My eyes widened.

I dashed down to the staircase but turned around seeing my friends surrounded by socs.

"Go check on Ponyboy! We'll take care of them!" Darry shouted at me, getting ready to fight. I nodded and headed down the stairs.

I found Ponyboy holding the wooden plank, his arms sagged and he was panting. His face was beaded with blood and sweat, and he had bruises all over him.

"Told you I could handle them…" he smiled, catching his breath. But I wasn't looking at him, I was looking at something behind him.

The first soc Pony had beaten down, our captor, was awake now, standing up, furious. He pulled something quickly out of his pocket and raised it. I was aghast.

It was a gun, and I knew it was the one Steve had been talking about. This time I was too slow to react.

"Ponyboy, get out of the way!" I shouted, running towards him, but I didn't make it in time. The sound of the gunshot echoed through the whole house and I nearly fell back.

Ponyboy held his hand at his side, revealing blood that was falling from a wound on his side.

Pony swayed on the spot, blood slowly dripping from his mouth.
His legs gave out and he collapsed, but I caught him.

I knelt on the floor holding him, trying to talk to him.

"No, no, no! Ponyboy, stay with me, don't you dare leave me and the gang! Don't you dare!" I shouted as I started crying.

I felt the soc place the gun against my head, but I only held Ponyboy tighter.

"Your turn, greaser. Say goodbye…" he sneered and I closed my eyes for impact when I heard voices.

"DON'T MOVE! DROP YOUR WEAPON, NOW!" someone yelled. I opened my eyes.

It was the police! The soc must've known he was outnumbered because I heard the gun clatter on the ground next to me.

The soc got handcuffed and the others came in. Darry stopped dead in front of me and knelt to my level, his hands shaking, his eyes focused on Ponyboy.

Ponyboy barely lifted his head and looked at me.

"Ponyboy, look at me! Look at me, stay, please! Please stay!" I told him, not being able to stop the waterfall of tears that were cascading down my face.

"Don't worry, Soda… I won't be seeing Dally anytime soon…" he stuttered, coughing up blood. I smiled weakly.

"Promise?" I asked.

"I… I p-promise…" and his eyes closed, but he wasn't dead.

I could feel him breathing. Ponyboy's a tough kid, but I just hoped he'd be tough enough to make it through this.

Author's Note

Phew, it feels good to finally finish this chapter! Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger like this, but hopefully you'll forgive me. Sorry if you've noticed that the chapters are taking a little bit longer to come out, I'm working on some one-shots on the side about Ponyboy that I'll post once they are done. I'll likely post all the one-shots as one fic, to save time from creating a bunch of chapters. I don't really have anything more to say, so stay gold and take care of yourself!

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