Age: 40s
Gender: Male
Description: McAllister is a thin, average looking man with red hair. He always sports a trimmed beard of some sort. While wholly unnecessary, he sports ties much of the time. Rumor is his quarters have ties hanging on all four walls from all the different ones he has been seen wearing. His wife, Linda, is blind. He has one surviving child, a six year old girl named Justine. She takes after her father in the hair color department, with freckles covering her face.
Biography: Born in the late-seventies, David grew up the son of a pastor. He was groomed to succeed his father Giles. While his dad was kind and gentle, David seemed to get the McAllister mean streak that usually skipped a generation. He could be a mean bastard, as his grandfather had shown the McAllister's were capable of. Gene McAllister had been a successful bank robber in the 50s. From bank robber to pastor, there was a wide variety of influences in his gene pool. As a youth minister in high school he saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in the front pew one day, sitting with her parents. Then he found out the woman was blind. It was agonizing, not that she was blind, but to think of what it must be like to not see the world. In a way, her beauty blinded him.
David courted Linda for a while, her parents were wary. Many a man had come along seeing the looks Linda had, seeing an easy in for sex since she was blind. Linda did long to have love of some sort, but her parents were there to protect her from herself. In the parking lot before church one day, two kids from his class were making fun of Linda's disability. They were so hurtful she broke down in sorrow. His genes made their decision. Instead of stepping in and stopping it, forcing the other boys to confront their demons, he hauled off and smashed one in the face with his Jerusalem Bible. The other one struggled with him, giving as much as he got, until his father and church elders ran up, tearing the boys away from one another. The first boy clutched his nose, savagely broken from the bible blow. To this day the front was still stained with blood.
He avoided any juvenile time with his father pleading his case, though plenty of volunteer service followed. Giles sat him down one day, letting him know that the pulpit may not be for him. David argued, stating that his pulpit may be a bit more stern. His father sighed, realizing he wouldn't reach him that night. David went on to be an insurance salesman, one of the best in the state of New Mexico.
Linda's parents knew what he had done was wrong, but knew he was looking out for their girl. The family welcome him with open arms. As a sign of his true interest, he never bedded Linda until after they were married. Three miscarriages followed in the next years, leading to the bottle for David. Crazily enough his drunken binges actually led to him increasing his numbers at work, but he was a time bomb. Linda and her parents had an intervention and sent him to rehab.
Recovery was long but it came with time. They were in the state capital when the invasion occurred, holding up in the secret escape tunnels below for a while. He took a few survivors from there to the McAllister family cabin out in the desert of West New Mexico. One had the nerve to accuse his wife of being a liability. David beat the man to death in front of the whole group. One of them, an ex-con named Mark Thornton, nodded in approval. He found a man of like mind and spirit that day. If everyone followed common courtesy and treated each other with respect, nothing bad happened. No one ever accused Linda of being a liability again.
As many survivors found out, the aliens weren't the only threat. Bandits came to claim the cabin and surrounding land for themselves. A large portion of their group died and they had to flee further west. Even more died in the retreat. It reminded him of the Navajo Long Walk, although no guns were pointed at them during their march. The threat of pursuers were always there. During the journey it became obvious the food was too scarce for them too all survive. Asking for an apology from God, one night he awoke those he found most useful and they took off in the dead of night.
The group came upon Sanctuary in its early days, finding a great foundation. McAllister respected the positions that Callum, Finley, and others held. Just like with the president and all the corrupt politicians, that didn't mean he would stand by and let them tread all over him. McAllister was a proponent of continued free will and limited intrusion. Anyone upset with the establishment he brought into the fold.
Robert Thornton, right-hand man
Skills: David can sell people on things they would never think to do. He also has an air of authority about him that makes people take him seriously, whether they like him or not. From time to time he still gives a sermon at the borders of the town to those who care to hear. Due to this, some people come to him for confession. He wasn't of the Catholic faith, considering himself non-denominational, but he heard them out.