As they walk through the in the darkness, they hear a car horn. Five Socs hop out of their blue , and Pony can see they are very . Johnny's face goes blank--only Pony can see the fear in his eyes. The boy with the , Bob, and his friend Randy, threaten Pony and Johnny, and the two of them try to act . One of the boys pushes Ponyboy into a , holding his head under the water. He falls unconscious and when he wakes up, Johnny tells him he killed . Johnny holds a knife, and Ponyboy looks down to see Bob lying on the pavement in a pool of blood. Johnny says, "I had to. They were you, Pony. They might have killed you."
Ponyboy panics, but Johnny seems calm. He says that will tell them what to do. They know they can find him at Merril's place. Buck Merril is a and gambler, and Ponyboy has been forbidden to go near him, but they need to see Dally. There is a rough going on at Merril's place, but Dally is . He listens to their story and simply congratulates on killing Bob. "The fight for self-preservation had hardened him against caring." Dally gives the boys some money and a , and worries about what Darry and Sodapop will say when they find out about this. Pony tries to convince himself he doesn't care if worries or not. Dally tells them to hop on a to a nearby city, and stay in an abandoned . He instructs them to buy enough for a week and then stay hidden in the church at all times--he will come get them as soon as he can.
The boys find the church, and remembers going to church with Johnny. They both enjoyed the . Then one day they brought Soda and Steve and Two-Bit, who would not stop talking and during the service. Pony was so embarrassed that he never went back to church. He thinks about where he is now: "This church gave me a kind of creepy feeling. What do you call it? ?" The boys are so tired that they fall almost immediately.