Gathering all of his courage, the tow-head stepped into the clearing, arms open.

"Lookin' for me, a**hole?"

Scott whipped around, training the gun on the man who'd suddenly appeared from the brush. "You." he growled, instantly recognizing the man Claire had failed to assasinate. His green eyes blazed with hatred at the sight of him. "Go ahead. Shoot me. If you've got the balls." Dallas taunted, the smirk clear as day on his face. "You son of a-" In one swift motion, Scott took a large step towards the tow-head, swinging his arm to pistol whip him. But Dallas was too fast. He quickly grabbed Scott's arm, hitting the black-haired man's forearm hard with his own and causing the gun to slip from Scott's grasp and sail acrossed the clearing. "You pathetic excuse for man." Dallas growled, yanking Scott's arm towards the ground and bringing his own knee up to meet Scott's stomach before shoving him away. Scott stumbled to the ground, quickly pulling himself back to his feet. He clutched at his stomach with one arm. "You.. think... you're any.. better?" he wheezed, managing to straighten up after a moment. Dallas grinned. "Yeah. Actually, I know I am. Hell, Claire's more of a man than you are." "You lousy pice of sh-" Scott never finished his sentence, for in his distraction, he hadn't noticed Claire pick up the gun. She brought it down acrossed the back of his neck with a loud thwack, and Scott crumbled to the ground. "Ya know, we could've been something." Claire mocked, kicking his unconcious body to the side.

Dallas looked on in satisfaction before taking a step towards Claire. "Hey, you al-" "Don't. Move." the woman stated, swiftly lifting the gun so that it was level with the blonde's chest. Dallas slowly lifted his hands in surrender."Woah now..." he started. "Can it!" Claire barked, her violet eyes still holding that look of terror. Dallas' heart pounded. He knew that look; any shred of trust she held for anyone had been betrayed; she wasn't taking chances. And Dallas was in a very bad situation. "I don't wanna hear any of your bulls***!" Dallas lowered his hands slightly. "Listen, lady. I don't know who the hell you are, or what the hell you're goin' on about-" Claire laughed, her disheveled black hair pulled loose form her braid and hanging limp arouind her face, making her look more insane than she clearly was. "You're just like everyone else. 'I saved your life, you owe me.' Well listen here, I don't owe you NOTHIN'. I don't owe ANYBODY nothin!"

It was obvious that the stress of the situation had sent Claire into a fit of mental instability. How long it would last, Dallas didn't know. All he knew was that a crazed woman with impeccable aim was aiming a gun at him. "Hey, I wasn't gonna-" "BULLS***!" Claire screeched, shaking the firearm. "F***ING BULLS***!" "Claire- that's your name right?" Dallas started, and a small wave of relief washed over him as he noticed her calm down ever so slightly at the sound of her name. "You need to just calm. The f***. Down. Aright?" He took a tentative step towards her; and instantly regretted it. "STAY BACK!" Claire fired at the ground right in front of Dallas. The tow-head jumped back with a shout. "What the f*** did I just say, you crazy b***?" he yelled, fear making his already short temper run shorter. "I'M. NOT. CRAZY." Claire stated, aiming the gun at Dallas' chest again. "I'm perfectly. Sane." "Would a sane person be pointing a gun at another person? Especially one that just pretty much saved your a**?"

Claire gave him a look of pure rage. "I F***ING KNEW IT!" she shouted. "YOU'RE JUST LIKE THE REST!" "Woah there, trigger-happy." Dallas said, taking a step back. "I'm just stating a fact." "SHUT THE F*** UP!" Claire shot at the ground again, causing Dallas to jump. "JUST. SHUT.UP." "Quiet the f*** down! You're gonna attract-" He broke off as a low groan sounded from his righ. He didn't need to look to know what it was. "Damnit!" Dallas snarled. "Now look what you've done!" "Me?!" Claire retorted, the crazed look suddenly disappearing from her as she realized the situation they were in. "I'm not the one who-" "We don't have time for this!" Dallas snapped, quickly making his way to her, taking advantage of her distraction. "We'll discuss how much this is your fault later. Right now, we need to get outta here." Claire glared at him, obviously angry about his comment, but nodded nonetheless. "How are there so many already?" she asked, her voice holding a note of panic as she pressed her back to Dallas', gun raised. "Probably drawn from that first shot you took at me earlier." the tow-head muttered, having pulled his bow from his back and notched an arrow to the string. "Oh, you know what." Claire growled, pulling the trigger and sending a bullet clean through a Walker's forehead.

Dallas raised his bow, letting his fingers slip from the bowstring. His arrow flew straight into the head of a Walker, causing it to fall. "There's really not that many, surprisingly." the man stated, quickly notching another arrow as Claire took down another of the undead people surrounding them. It took about ten minutes for the two to clean out the majority of the Walkers; Claire's gun kept attracting more. "We need to get gone before more get here; I doubt that was the last of them." Dallas stated, collecting what arrows he could salvage. Claire nodded, reloading her gun. "What about Scott?" Dallas glanced at her. "What about him?" Claire frowned. "We can't just leave him here!" Dallas gave her an incredulous look. "We can, and we will. Claire, he tried to kill you a few minutes ago! Do you seriously still care about that a**hole?" Claire looked at Scott's unconcious form, not answering. Dallas huffed in disbelief. "Wow, alrighty then." He shook his head."Listen, you can stay here with your pshycopath of a boyfriend and get yourself killed; wether it's by Walkers or him. But I am getting my a** out of here."

The man un-notched his arrow, deciding it best to go with melee for the journey back. He took out one of the Walkers that had found their way to the pair, quickly yanking the arrow out of it's eye-socket. They were starting to regroup, slowly re-surrounding the area. He looked back at Claire. "Comin' or not?" he called, glancing out of the corner of his eye at a nearby Walker. The woman didn't respond, kneeling beside Scott's still unconscious body. Dallas scowled, quickly side-stepping to embed his arrow into the head of the nearby Walker. I can't just leave her here... I mean, she did try to kill me... Twice... In his distraction, Dallas hadn't noticed a Walker to his right reaching for him until he was yanked from his thoughts by a cold, disgustingly rotted body slamming into his shoulder. Without enough time to properly react, Dallas stumbled, his heel catching on a tree root and causing him to fall onto his back. The Walker fell with him, immediately attempting to take a bite out of Dallas' shoulder. S***... The man struggled to shove the Walker off of him, slipping his right forearm acrossed it's throat to keep it's face out of biting distance, fist clenched as he braced his arm. I am NOT going to die here. Dallas shoved up hard against the Walker, managing to dislodge it from him. He quickly stood, only to have another Walker jump on his back.
"Damnit!" Dallas growled, grabbing the Walker by it's neck and yanking it over his shoulder. He slammed the Walker into the ground, quickly bringing his foot down on it's head. It's skull was crushed under the one-hundred sixty-four pounds of pressure. By this time, the first Walker had gotten up and was making it's way to the blond again.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, meeting the Walker's head. The blond grimaced as the blood spattered across his face, but grinned as he felt Claire's presence beside him. "I knew you were a smart one." "Can it, a**hole. I'm still p***ed at you." the black haired woman growled, pistol whipping another Walker that had shuffled over to the pair. Dallas smirked, pulling another arrow from his quiver to replace the one he'd lost in the struggle.
Drawn from Claire's gunshot yet again, a large group of Walkers met Dallas and Claire as they continued through the woods. "There's so many!" Claire cried as she quickly took aim at a Walker's head. "We'll never make it out alive!" Dallas gave a short laugh, jabbing a Walker in the eye. "Nonsense! You're only saying that because no one ever has!" Claire groaned, pulling the trigger to release her bullet into a Walker's head. "Now is not the time to joke around, a**hole!" "Better than pessimism, trigger-happy." the blonde shot back, swinging around in a round-house kick to a Walker's head and subsequently taking out one beside it.

"Hey, you know my name, use it!" Claire stated as she fired into a Walker. "You don't use mine!" Dallas replied, grunting as he shoved his arrow deep into a Walker's eye socket. "I don't know yours! I have an excuse!" "I thought you would, seeing you've been watchin me for some time now." Dallas smirked, earning a glare from the woman. "Name's Dallas." he added, lodging his arrow into the side of a Walker's head and being forced to draw another one. "Pleasure to make your aquaintance." Claire gave a dry laugh. "Whatever, a**hole." "Hey, you know my name, use it!" Dallas joked as he continued to fend off the Walkers. Claire rolled her eyes.

With the two of them working together, Dallas and Claire managed to clear out most of the Walkers. "I think we can make a break for it." Claire stated, and before Dallas could respond, she was off, bolting through the trees. "Wait, what..." Dallas stood slightly befuddled, but quickly regained his composure and took off after her. "Thanks... for the warning... trigger-happy.." he breathed as he caught up to her. Claire didn't respond, picking up her pace slightly. Dallas rolled his eyes, easily matching her stride. By the time they reached the edge of the clearing, both parties were out of breath and covered in scratches. Dallas huffed, forcing himself to stay standing straight as he caught his breath. He reached up and scratched lightly at his face, blood, which would've been completely dry had it not been for the fact that Dallas was sweating profusely, finding it's way under his nails. He grimaced at this, making a mental note to clean himself up well when he got back.

"You.. alright?" Dallas asked when he'd managed to catch most of his breath. Claire nodded. "As 'alright' as I'll ever be, I guess." she stated, running a hand through her disheveled hair, pulling more from her already destroyed braid. Dallas nodded, swiping the back of his right forearm acrossed his forehead, leaving blood streaks acrossed the skin of both. "So. What now?" Claire asked, hands on her hips. "I assume you're not just gonna take me back to your stronghold, given what you heard back there." Dallas pulled his right arm acrossed his chest, cracking his shoulder. "You're right, I'm notjust gonna take you back." Claire's expression darkened at this confirmation. "You are coming back as my prisoner, so the group can decide what to do with you." "Excuse you?" Claire's head jerked up, a look of pure disdain and disbelief on her face. "Hey, it's either come back as my 'prisoner' and have even the slightest chance of getting into a better survival situation, or I leave you out here to deal with them." Dallas stated simply, cracking his other shoulder as he jerked his head in the direction of the woods. Claire opened her mouth to protest, but she couldn't find the words, and thus proceeded to open and closed it like a fish out of water. Dallas smirked, his expression clearly saying 'you've got nothin', and she closed her mouth, tossing him a glare. "Fine." she snarled, crossing her arms acrossed her chest.

"Glad we're on the same page." Dallas stated. "Now," He held out his hand, open with palm up. "Hand over your weapon." "What?" Claire's eyes widened, her grip tightening on the handgun at her side. "No!" "Prisoners don't carry weapons, do they." Dallas stated, hand held out for her gun. "Besides, it's best you go in there unarmed; they'll see you as less of a threat and be more open to the idea of you joining us." Claire hesitated, eyeing the man's open hand suspiciously. With a sigh, she handed her weapon to Dallas, who quickly clicked on the safety and slid the 9mm into his waistband. "Alright, now one last thing." "Oh my- what now!" Claire sighed in exasperation. Dallas pulled a short length of rope- the rope he'd been using to string up his kills- from his back pocket. "Oh, heeell no." Claire stated, backing away from him. "Do we have to go through this again?" Dallas rolled his eyes, unraveling the rope. "Just turn around. The faster this gets done, the faster we can get you back to base and the faster I can cut the rope. It's not that hard to comprehend, trigger-happy." Claire didn't respond. Her eyes narrowed, her expression telling Dallas that she was thinking; probably trying to decide if her freedom was worth making a break for it. After a moment, she sighed, gave the man one final glare as she accepted defeat, and turned around, hands behind her back. "There we go." The man made a slip-knot, taking one of Claire's significantly smaller hands in his and slipping the loop onto her wrist. He tightened it before looping the rope around her other wrist. He pulled the rope tight, earning a grunt from the woman. "Easy there, cowboy." she growled, glancing at him over her shoulder. Dallas smirked. "Don't want you gettin away from me, do we." he replied, giving the rope a small tug, much to Claire's chagrin. "A**hole." she muttered, looking back ahead of her as Dallas finished his work in a secure knot. "Done." he stated, cutting off the excess rope. Claire strained against the bonds, testing their strength. "Good work." she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she realized that there was no way she was getting out of this situation. "Thank you." Dallas replied, ignoring her sarcasm. "Now, let's go. I'll have to come back later." he said, adding the last part as a reminder for himself. With a small shove against Claire's back, the two were walking away from the woods.

"So. Claire. " Dallas started. It had been an awkward silence for the last few minutes as they walked. "Don't try to small-talk me, a**hole." Claire shot him down immediately. Dallas lifted his hands in mock surrender. "Woah there, trigger-happy. No need to bite my head off. What, you the 'strong silent type' ?" he teased, giving her a light elbow to the side. "No, I just don't feel like talking to an overly confident a**hole who took my gun and tied me up. That's all." Claire stated simply, her gaze fixed on the road before them. "Wow, cold." Dallas said. "What if this a**hole had saved your life, and was giving you a better chance of survival?" "Don't even start that s*** with me." the woman growled, her gaze snapping over to Dallas for a moment. "I don't owe you anything." "If you say so." Dallas shrugged, continuing to walk beside her. The silence returned, but it was different. Claire seemed uncomfortable with it this time; almost as if she missed the conversation. "Hey, Dallas?" "Oh, I thought you didn't feel like talking to me?" the man gave her a cocky grin. "Shut the f*** up." Claire retorted. "Absolutely." Dallas raised his hands again in false surrender, lowering his head slightly, returning to silence. "Ugh, you are SO irritating." the dark-haired woman mumbled. Dallas couldn't help but toss her a smirk; Claire just rolled her eyes.
"But... seriously. Why did you save me back there?" Dallas' steady pace faltered ever so slightly at this. He didn't respond otherwise, causing Claire to give him a look. "Dallas?" "Just cuz." he stated, suddenly and simply, his playful demeanor having disappeared. "That's not a very g-" Claire pressed, but was cut off mid-sentence. "Just cuz, alright?" The stern tone in the blond's voice took Claire aback, and she decided to drop the subject. "Alright...."

They fell back into a solemn silence, neither saying a word until they were about four yards away from the front of the hotel. The building was rather large, being surrounded by nothing but open field for miles, with the exception of the large parking lot located on the right side of the building. The nearest neighboring building was at least a mile away. A simple strip of blacktop formed the only thing separating the hotel from the cast expanse of woodland stretching acrossed the landscape as far as the eye could see.
"Here we are." Dallas stated, coming to a stop and holding out an arm in front of Claire to stop her as well.. "Why did we stop?" Claire asked, giving him a confused look. "You'll see." The tow-head ducked down to crouch, seeming to look closely at something before standing back up. "Follow my steps exactly." Without waiting for Claire to reply, Dallas lifted his leg so that his knee was bent at a ninety-degree angle to his body, stepping over something that was invisible to Claire. The woman quirked an eyebrow at him as he swung his other leg around to stand on the other side of whatever it was he'd stepped over. When Claire didn't move, Dallas rolled his eyes. "Well? C'mon!" the tow-head insisted. Though slightly weirded out, Claire copied Dallas, stepping over the invisible object. "Ok..." she said when she had found her footing beside Dallas. She waited for the man to say something. Instead, he lay down on his stomach and rolled about a foot before standing again. Realizing that she wasn't going to get any answers at the moment, Claire sighed before following suit, wincing as she rolled over her hands. She stopped rolling beside Dallas and moved to push herself up before remembering that her hands were still tied. She let out a huff of annoyance, blowing a few strands of hair away from her face only for them to fall back down, as she was on her stomach. "Need some help?" Dallas asked, and Claire almost snarled at the obvous smirk in his voice. "No, the ground is just comfortable." Claire retorted sarcastically, stretching her neck in an attempt to glare at him, but her gaze only succeeded in reaching his neck."Of course I need help. Thanks to you, a**hole." Dallas rolled his eyes, crouching down in front of her. He slid his hands under her armpits, lifting her to her feet with a soft grunt. "There." Claire simply glared at him. "What, no 'thank you'?" "P*** off." Claire spat. With a shrug, Dallas stepped over another invisible object.

After a few more feet of rolling, ducking, and other odd movements, the pair found themselves at the front door of the hotel. It was an old fashioned hotel, Claire deducted from the fact that instead of the modern age sliding glass doors, there was a wooden door. It seemed to have been replaced quite recently, however; it was clearly sturdier than the original door would have been. Several locks had also been added to the door. Dallas dug into his pocket. "You're to be on your best behavior, understood, Claire?" the tow-head stated as he produced a keyring. "Our 'leader' is dead serious about the safety of the group. He won't take to kindly to you, especially once he hears what went down back there." It's probably not gonna help that I'm the one bringing you in, either. He added mentally. Claire gave Dallas a glare at his authoritative tone, but nodded nonetheless.

The tow-head flipped through the various keys, stopping on one and inserting it in the main keyhole. He opened the door silently, grabbing Claire's upper arm and pulling her in behind him before closing and locking the door behind them. Claire huffed, attempting to blow a lock of hair out of her face as she turned away from the door. Immediately, she froze. "Woah....." She breathed, looking around the lobby. Her first assumptions had been correct; the hotel was old-fashioned. The front desk was a half-circle, situated in the far left corner, only being separated from the main stairwell by a single wooden door . The stairwell itself consisted of several sets of about 10 steps, each set leading in the opposite direction from the one before, all separated by landings. On the other side of that was another wooden door, identical to the one on the other side of the stairs. A stone fireplace sat in the middle of the right wall, surrounded by old-fashioned arm chairs. Despite their age, the chairs still seemed to be in decent condition, the faded fabric on their spiral-style arms the only indication of years of use. The carpet was a light brown, almost beige color, fitting nicely with the burgundy wallpaper decorating the room. A large, ornate chandelier hung from the center of the high ceiling, all of the lightbulbs removed from their sockets. A hallway marked the end of each wall, one on either side of Claire.

"What a place to call home, huh." Dallas said, standing beside her. The woman jumped ever so slightly, startled by Dallas' sudden appearance. She nodded simply, her expression snapping back to it's usual stoic scowl. She rotated her shoulders, straining against her bonds again. The tow-head rolled his eyes, looking at his watch. "It's about noon.." He murmured, glancing down the left hallway. "C'mon." He stated, nudging Claire lightly as he walked towards said hall, checking over his shoulder to make sure Claire was following him. Seeing that she was-though rather reluctantly-, he nodded to himself, leading her down the relatively short corridor. "Where are we even going?" Claire asked, looking around the hallway as they walked. "To introduce you to our 'leader'." Dallas replied. "Alright, why do you do that?" The black-haired woman asked, giving Dallas a look. "Do what?" "Say 'leader' like that?" Dallas glanced at her. "It's a long story that's none of your business." he stated simply. Claire glared at him. "No need for the attitude, a**hole." she muttered, looking away from him again. Dallas didn't reply.

It was only a few minutes before they reached the end of the hall, which was marked by a large pair of old, wooden double-doors. Dallas held out an arm to stop Claire from going any further. "You ready?" the blonde asked, glancing at the woman. " As ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Claire responded, a slightly bitter tone in her voice. "Alright then." Dallas placed one hand on each door. "Let's meet my team then."