David Wayne Knox

Born in 1985, David and his little brother, Caleb, grew up in extremely rural Louisiana, South of New Orleans in the middle of what was essentially just a swamp. Living with a single mother addicted to drugs, David wound up being the primary caretaker for his young family by the age of 9, after his father left the family in debt.
He mostly worked on farms nearby for money and took his brother on walks in the swamp to find things that could be eaten, including wild plants and small fish.
By the time he was in his teens, David was a very angry young man. When he was home from working, he spent a majority of his time arguing with his mother, and while he loved his little brother dearly, watching Caleb get blessed with what halfway resembled the childhood David felt robbed of bred a lot of resentment and conflict between brothers.
To get away, David joined the Marine Corps at the ripe age of 18. He made trips home to take care of his little brother every few years while serving in conflicts overseas; starting in Iraq in 2004, then Afghanistan in 2010, and finally Syria in 2017 until he retired in 2020 at 35 and returned home to the United States permanently. He returned to his hometown in rural Louisiana only to find that Caleb was desperate to get out of a bad situation with a local gang.
David and Caleb left their hometown, their childhood home, and their mother behind without so much as a text message, hoping to find safety in unfamiliar places, together.