In Vietnam

The Hospital

Soda's POV

While we were waiting for the doctor to come out, most of us ended up falling asleep, because it was pretty late.

Then we were woken up when the doctor called Darry and I into the hallway.

"Well, do you want good news or bad news first?"

"Bad news," Darry and I said at the same time.

"Okay. The bad news is that Ponyboy has a broken nose, broken ribs, a bit of a concussion, three bullet wounds, and a lot of bruises. The good news is that Ponyboy is stable and should be awake soon. He should be able to get out of here in the next week or two."

"Thank you, doctor."

I felt myself being able to breathe a little bit better.

"And you can see him now if you would like."

When the doctor finished talking to us, we got the gang and went to Pony's room. He looked way better than he did when we found him.

Darry and I went over to each side of the bed and held his hand. We were so close to losing him, and I wouldn't be able to take that.
~~~~
The next morning, before everyone woke up, I went and grabbed ahold of my brother's hand again. I looked at him, and I could feel myself starting to tear up.

I said, "Pony, everything's going to be okay. I love you so much."

But it was the exact opposite.

The machines started going haywire, and I backed away from the bed. Then, everyone woke up, and nurses rushed into the room. Darry asked what was happening. None of the nurses replied. When everything had calmed down, Dally asked the golden question: "What the hell is going on?"

The doctor replied, "You guys need to go back into the waiting room. We'll call you back when we know what happened."

So that's what we did. We all left and sat in the waiting room, and I was so upset. What is going on with my baby brother?
~~~~
About 30 minutes later, Darry and I were finally called into the back hallway. When we got there, the doctor was frank and to the point.

I felt my heart drop once he started.

"Unfortunately, Ponyboy has gone into shock and is in a coma. He should come out of it eventually, but for now, the best thing is for him to be kept here. We will let you know when he is awake."

I could feel my vision starting to blur, and I stumbled backwards. No, this can't be happening. My poor baby brother. He doesn't deserve this.

I could tell Darry was looking at me. "Soda, are you okay? Soda?!"

I fell onto the hospital floor and went into unconsciousness. The last thing I heard was, "Soda!"
~~~~
Darry's POV

When we got the news, I was devastated. I thought Ponyboy was okay.

Soda couldn't take it, and he stumbled backward before collapsing on the floor. I yelled, "Soda!"

Then, a doctor called a few nurses to take him into a room. They came with a stretcher and rolled him into a room, while I was taken back out into the waiting room. When the guys saw me, they asked what had happened.

I said, "Ponyboy went into shock and is in a coma. They said he'd wake up eventually. And if you're wondering where Soda is, well, he passed out after getting the news."

"Oh shit," Steve whispered.

"What're we supposed to do now?" asked Two-Bit.

Before I could answer, another soldier in uniform came over to us with a bunch of letters and handed them to us. He said, "Read those and then get to the chopper."

We all opened ours, and mine read:

"Dear Darryl Curtis,
We need you back on the battlefield. We're running out of men. We need as many men as we can get to fight this battle, and you're one of them. Unfortunately, General Hutch has died, and I'm your new chief. There's a chopper waiting outside the hospital. See you here.

Signed,
Chief Dawson."

When I closed mine, I looked up and looked at the guys. They were all looking at me. "What?"

"Are we going to go without Ponyboy?" Dally asked.

"We're going to have too. This is the safest place for him to be. We know he's not going to wake up anytime soon, and the doctor said he'd send a letter when he wakes up. The best thing to do right now is go back to fighting."

All the guys nodded.

The last thing I said was, "First, we're saying goodbye to Ponyboy and Soda."

When we got to Ponyboy's room, I went over to his bed and kissed his forehead. I whispered, "I love you. Keep fighting, little buddy."

Then, I left and went to Soda's room while the other guys said goodbye to Ponyboy. Once I got there, I kissed Soda's forehead and whispered, "Everything's going to be okay. We'll get through this, I promise. I love you, Pepsi-Cola."

When we were done, we followed the soldier out to the chopper. It took about ten minutes to get there, and looking out the window, I saw it didn't look good at all. There were craters all over the place from land mines and shells. We landed, and Chief Dawson met us at the chopper. This time we stayed in the same unit.