Name: David Alexander Age: 51 Community Job: Leader of the Hunters Job Before: US Army Sniper Reside in: Small cabin by the farm How long have they lived in Redwood?: 2 years Family: Dog Roxy Status: Single Faceclaim: Jeremy Renner
TW: Abuse & Death
David Alexander was born and raised on a farm outside of Fredricksburg, Texas. His mother was an angel and doted on her son, but his father…his father was the literal devil. He would beat his mother and when David was older, he would beat his son too. The first twelve years of his life was hell whenever his father was around. When it was just his mother and him, everything was great. But the moment his father stumbled through the door, it would all go to hell. David begged his mom to leave their father, afraid that one day he would kill her or both of them, but his mother was afraid that he would find them, no matter where they went. When he was twelve, his father had gotten really drunk and came at them with a knife. David doesn’t remember much but he remembered grabbing the shotgun to try and get him away from them and then a loud bang.
Police came moments later and after his mother told them the whole story, they ruled it as self-defense and his mom took David to live with her sister in Louisiana. For the first year after the incident, David really didn’t talk to anyone. He was still coming to grips with the fact that he had taken a human life. Sure, it was the life of an alcoholic, abusive bastard, but it was still a life. His uncle decided to try and help and took David on a hunting trip. They had a good talk and after killing a few bucks, they returned home and David felt much better. He was back to being a happy, pre-teen boy. In fact, the hunting trip would become a reoccurring event up until he was eighteen. It was something he looked forward to every year.
During high school, he tried to think about what he wanted to do once he graduated. And since he loved hunting, he figured why not put that passion to use and joined the Army. He worked his way through the ranks and joined the Special Forces as a sniper. He went on numerous missions and was one of the most accurate snipers their team had to offer. Often their team would be called up for a mission with respect to their high success rate. David took pride in his word, however with the frequency of their missions and movements, David never had time to settle down and have a family. It was something he wanted and with his retirement right around the corner, he figured he could wait a few years longer to start that family.
Of course, he never counted on a zombie outbreak. His team was at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, preparing for a mission when they were called to Maryland. Their orders - maintain the perimeter. They had been told of an infection that was making its way out of Bethesda and they were on orders to keep anyone from leaving. It seemed simple but what David didn’t bank on was that one of his teammates had gone into the quarantine zone and became infected. By the time David found out, it was too late. His friend killed his team and would have gotten David too if David hadn’t killed him before he got near.
On his own now, David used his training to survive on his own for as long as he could. He would never stay in one spot for long, living off the land and avoiding raiders and infected at any cost. He listened for any survivor camps and after checking to see if he could find a few, he found nothing but ruin and infection. He was starting to think that these camps were just myths to instill hope in the survivors of the outbreak. But then he came across Redwood and his view was changed. He hadn’t planned on staying for long, thinking that the longer he stayed in one place the more at risk they would all be at, but he wound up finding himself a nice home here.
Headcanons:
David never drank. Growing up with an alcoholic, abusive father, he hated what alcohol did and never found himself having the urge to touch the stuff.
He’s haunted by the death of his team and having to kill his friend. He blames himself for what happened - he should have known his teammate had snuck into the town and should have stopped him before he did.
Before he arrived at Redwood, he came across a stray puppy German Shephard. The puppy looked to be in good health and after monitoring it to make sure it wasn’t infected, he kept her. He named her Roxy and Roxy often goes out with him on hunts to keep him company and trained her to be on alert to let him know if there were any infected nearby.
