Name: Ayla Alexander
Gender: Female
Age: Twenty-nine
Birthplace: Baltimore
Former Life: Drug Dealer, recruiter, smuggler, and occasionally hitman. Ayla was born into the rough life of drugs and the violence that came with it. Working 9 to 9 scraping pennies just to live in a small apartment with poor food and no freedom was not a life she wanted, and so she joined up with a gang to sell and produce drugs until she’d get enough money to finally move out and find better, more honest work. That… Never got to happen.
Appearance: A dark skin woman with short hair, hazel eyes, and freckles. She’s very tall, standing at six feet and four inches, weighing in over one hundred and sixty pounds. A very athletic build designed for running, a skill she had growing up. Whether she was running track, running from the law, or running from the undead. Conventionally attractive for most people, something which has caused her more trouble than she cares to admit, and so she does very little to take care of her beauty, and is mostly concerned about her health.
Ayla’s outfits tend to be light but simple. She rarely wears anything flashy or anything that could get caught on something sharp and slow her down. She’d rarely even wear jackets if she doesn’t have to, and even if she does, she makes sure they’re jackets she can abandon when needed. It is not unusual for Ayla to scavenge clothing off the dead as long as it’s mostly whole. She carries few physical scars of her previous or current life thanks to her willingness to get out of dangerous situations at the price of everyone else.
Personality: Ayla is cooperative but keeps to herself. Whenever possible she looks for other people to work with for the goal of survival, whether it be finding shelter, supplies, or just fending off the undead hordes. However don’t mistake her helpfulness as kindness; her willingness to work with others is just practical for the goal of survival, and her concerns about people as individuals only extend as far as making sure they won’t be detrimental to her own survival. Ayla has no patience for other people’s problems or drama and in the current state of the world, she doesn’t even hesitate to simply use violence or the threat of violence to deal with the most mundane and petty matters. In her own words, “If it’s not worth killing someone, it doesn’t matter.”
More often than not Ayla will take command of small groups if no one bothers to establish a chain of command. While most of it is again mostly just ensure her own survival, Ayla at least tries to assess and gauge people’s talents and abilities to make the most use for them. She’s quick to make executive decisions but just as quick to shed responsibility if it might cause a problem. Ruthless and pragmatic to a fault, and is certainly capable of manipulating and deceiving people for the ultimate goal of her own well-being.
Biography: You would think that being in the company of people armed with guns would be the best place to be during a zombie apocalypse, but as any zombie movie or show would tell you, the real monsters are always other people. When the undead hit Baltimore there were already riots and warfare between the various gangs and what was left of the police there. Frankly if anything the arrival of the zombies is what got people to stop fighting each other and trying to fight the zombies, but by then the damage was already done. Anything worth looting was taken or destroyed, any guns had no bullets, any drugs were already used or protected in what may as well been Fort Knox. Only the most stubborn of mules stayed in Baltimore. Ayla stole the first working motorcycle she could find and made her escape.
Over the next few years Ayla struggle, stole, and scavenged to survive. For an even shorter while she was even her own gang leader, having found a group of young teenagers who would listen to her guidance. However an internal squabble made sure that gang didn’t last longer than three months, and Ayla left without a single care. Ayla met a lot of people, helped them, and often betrayed them. She kept moving west, planning to reach Alaska where she figured the undead couldn’t survive the harsh and cold winter. It was along the way there she heard about some sort of community in Michigan by some bandits who she was cooperating with.
They heard of a small budding settlement with farms, walls, even electricity, and they planned to take it over by force. They had the numbers and they had the guns but Ayla knew these brutes wouldn’t know what to do with the resources at that camp. As far as they were concerned, they probably wouldn’t even know how to grow any food and would burn it to the ground. So Ayla volunteered to “scout” this camp, see what it was like. That’s how she found Wolfwater. Ayla has seen plenty of neighborhoods and settlements bound together for protection before they eventually turned bandit due to a lack of supplies, but Wolfwater was different. It wasn’t just a few families with guns and supplies, it was an actual community with some semblance of stability and protection. It was different. There was hope.
So Ayla quickly went and betrayed the bandits, warning Wolfwater of their plans. Sure enough when the bandits arrived, they didn’t stand a chance. Those who weren’t picked off by the traps set up just for them were taken down by the zombies who were lured in precisely to take advantage of the chaos. Those brigands didn’t even get within shooting distance before the whole outfit was reduced to a few handfuls of survivors who likely didn’t survive the aftermath. And this earned Ayla a place in Wolfwater.
Gear:
Sling - Ayla main Weapon. She’s familiar with this archaic weapon even back in her drug runner days. Despite how simple it looks it
can easily break into a human skull with a plain stone. Ayla is very accurate with this weapon an used lead bullets which have better accuracy and penetration. Best of all her sling doesn’t make a sound, at least not one loud enough for zombies or people to hear.
Phosphorus Grenades - Ayla carries at least two grenades for clearing out large hordes of zombies or people. Hot enough to melt steel. An emergency weapon.
Machete - A simple long knife. Generally used for foraging but occasionally self-defense too.
Duffel Bag - What Ayla used to carry anything she doesn’t wear on her person. Generally only filled with loot but does have supplies too.
Drugs - Ayla makes drugs for trading, medical, and combat purposes. She has a specific dosage for fighting she calls “Psycho” that’ll help give them an edge without a full high, but it’s still highly addictive. Taking a dose reduces one's physical and mental inhibitors.
Skills:
Fast - Fast on her feet and quick witted, Ayla will react and move quickly to just about everything. Though many would say she’s too jumpy for her own good, being so jumpy is how she survived many ambushed and unexpected surprises.
Sharp Eyes - Ayla has very keen eyes good for spotting things from afar, noticing small or quick details, and even has decent night vision.
Drug Production - Though she’s no scientist, Ayla knows how to make a few potent drugs out of both household and medical chemicals, and can whip up remedies to bandage certain illnesses until proper medical treatment can be found.
Lie Detector - When you sell an illegal product to rough and desperate folks, Ayla has learned to suss out the Honest Johns from the Inquisitive Dicks, and she hasn’t lost her touch after the end either. She has a good nose for picking up liars and deceivers.
Quiet - Ayla isn’t a fighter and doesn’t pretend to be. What she is however is good at getting in, out, and around like a ghost. She’s learned how to hide from even dogs, allowing her to sneak about the living and dead alike to avoid trouble and get in close without detection.
Flaws:
Cowardly - When the chips are down Ayla will cash out instead of going all in. Things don’t always have to go according to plan but if the whole situation turns pear shape don’t expect Ayla to try and salvage the situation or recoup any loses. She’ll instead cut her loses and focus on getting herself out, leaving everyone behind if she has to. She isn’t the type of person who would want to gamble if the odds aren’t already in her favor and if she has to work anyways, don’t expect her to give it her all. She’d rather focus all her efforts on saving herself than making sure the job is done. Even in a straight up fight Ayla focuses on weakened enemies or ones already being attacked by her friends, and she never tries to take on anyone alone.
Not a Fighter - Ayla has killed people before, but she’s no soldier or martial artist. She’s got muscle and attitude but at best she knows how to throw a punch, and the they intricacies of combat is beyond her experience. Even when fighting undead she tends to panic and make amateur mistakes like stabbing their limbs expecting that to hurt them, forgetting that zombies don’t feel pain or bleed out. While she can be a cunning fighter Ayla shouldn’t be trusted to fight on the frontlines of any battle.
Other: Ayla misses music the most and sometime goes out of her way to find instruments, CD’s, or anything that could have some songs in it. Though she prefers jazz, rock, and hip-hop, at this point she’s willing to listen to anything that isn’t just gunfire and screaming.
