Bob's death has a lingering effect on Randy Adderson. He decides not to take part in the rumble because
... it doesn't do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn't prove a thing. We'll forget it if you win, or if you don't. Greasers will still be greasers and Socs will still be Socs. Sometimes I think it's the ones in the middle that are really the lucky stiffs.
Randy tells Ponyboy that he would fight if he thought it would make a difference. Randy decides that he will take "my little old Mustang" and some money and get out of town. Randy is in a tough situation: He knows he'll be "marked chicken" if he doesn't participate, but his heart is no longer in the gang scene.
Interestingly, in Susan E. Hinton's followup to The Outsiders (That Was Then, This is Now), Randy reappears as a hippie in a Volkswagen van. He truly has forsaken violence for a more peaceful lifestyle.
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