Background:Jakob was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1946. Jakob’s early life was very vague and painful. His father died before he was born; he died on the U.S.S Indianapolis at the end of the war and his mother abandoned him at a local catholic orphanage; presumably because she couldn’t bare the thought of raising a child alone. From the ages of 1 to 17, Jakob was raised by the nuns at the orphanage. All his life, he was taught about the readings of the bible and the power of god, being taught to fear their creator. Jakob, like every child there, were miserable and had hoped to seek a better life. Occasionally a child would get adopted but Jakob never saw such luck.
At the age of 17, Jakob broke out of the orphanage with a couple of friends. They had no money, no connections, virtually no qualifications and no direction but they didn’t seem to care. They were just glad to be free. Around the time that they got free was the early 60s: the rise of counterculture had begun. Jakob traveled and hitchhiked all the way to the east coast over the course of the 60s. he indulged in booze, drugs, women and committed enough sins to make a nun shit herself. Jakob was living the good life.
Unfortunately, this all ended when the 70s came rolling in and counterculture started to die out. Most of the people who were hippies in the 60s left that phase to move on with their lives but for Jakob, he couldn’t. He didn’t want the good times and tried so hard to stay in that era but life wouldn’t let him go that easily. Through a friend of a friend in Philadelphia, Jakob started smuggling heroin across state lines to be able to make money. Unfortunately in the process, he started getting addicted to the drug itself and eventually got kicked out a few years later for stealing some of the product. They beat the crap out of him and left him half dead outside of a hospital.
For many years, Jakob did a lot of dark things for both money drugs. He sold his body for a sex a few times and even agreed to kneecap someone in exchange for a mere gram of Heroin. His life was really going down the fritz until one day in 1986...his life changed. It was the middle of the night and Jakob just got thrown out of another for rowdy behavior. He just cursed at the doorman and then walked off half drunk into the night. While walking around, trying to find a place to sleep for the night, all he heard was a woman screaming in an alleyway. Upon hearing the sudden noise, Jakob went to check it out and it was a pregnant whore lying against a dumpster in an alleyway. It was obvious from the puddle around her that her water had broke. Panicking, Jakob tried looking and shouting around for anyone to call an ambulance but the it was very late at night and the streets were empty. The woman screamed at Jakob, claiming that he had to either find transport or deliver the baby himself. Jakob knew what the only choice was, he couldn’t leave her alone to run a couple of blocks for a cab or a payphone, the baby was coming and someone had to be there. After a couple of hours of intense labour, the baby was finally born at the crack of dawn. Fortunately, a dog walker bumped into them and was able to go to a near payphone and call for an ambulance.
Jakob stayed with the girl the next day to see how her and the baby is. He had never felt such a miracle of life before. To see a baby born right in front of him was something he will always remember. Jakob was in the waiting room for a long while but was met by the woman’s doctor. The girl had left after getting a free night’s sleep and abandoned her baby. Jakob felt both devastated and angry. This baby will be alone for the rest of it’s life and will have nobody to love and raise it. jakob knew what that empty dark feeling was like and didn’t want the same fate to happen to the baby. On the spot there and then, he lied and claimed to be the birth father of the baby. From that point on, he made a promise to give that child a life worth living for.
For the many years afterwards, Jakob struggled to raise his new responsibility; whom he had named Dawn. For the first few years of her life, he was living close to edge, relying on government benefits and shitty pay from menial jobs. It wasn’t until around the start of the 90s that he had managed to get a stable, decent paying job. It was the position of a Religion Studies and Philosophy teacher at an inner city school in Philadelphia. To be honest, he got the job out of sheer luck. He bumped into the principal of the school at one of the short term menial jobs. He remembers the principal from his drug days in the 60s and he remembers him. But unfortunately he only got the job because by blackmailing with some dirty shit that the principal did back when they were young. He wasn’t proud of it and it would sour his teacher/principal relations in the future but he needed to provide something for his child.
For many years after that, his life was steady and his daughter was growing up right before his very eyes. His daughter was already in her late 20s and was working as an accountant for some major law firm in New York. He still hadn’t told her daughter the truth about what where she really came from and that technically, he isn’t her birth father and that her mother was a whore who abandoned her when she was barely 24 hours old. He was too much of a coward to tell her. He was happy with the way life is and he didn’t want it to end that way. But for Jakob, life always finds a way to make you face your fears.
On the first few days of the apocalypse, everything seemed normal but suddenly at the school people were starting to call in sick. It was a large majority of both the teachers and the students. He barely had half a class to teach! The phone lines and the electricity were starting to drop in and out too. It wasn’t a regular one off blackout, these were starting to become more regular. Worry was filling Jakob’s body quickly, so he started trying phone his daughter but unfortunately, she wasn’t picking up her phone and had no idea if she was alright or not. Like any worried parent, he started packing a bag decided to take a drive to New York to check up on her. The TV and radio kept saying to stay inside due to the mass riots happening all over Philadelphia but he was to worried about his daughter to listen to the officials. He got into his car and started driving out of Philadelphia.
Driving out of Philadelphia was nothing like he had ever seen before. Buildings were burning, ambulances were flashing, people were fighting each other like animals. It was like something out of an apocalyptic novel. Nevertheless, he kept pushing through until he started hitting the suburbs; the chaos was so out of hand that he had to keep switching between the other side of the road to avoid people and debris. He even swore that he saw a couple of people biting others. He put it out of mind, nothing could be that sick, hoped Jakob. The suburbs were almost the exact opposite of the city but were even worse. They were too quiet for their own good. He felt like he had entered a ghost-town. He was driving through the suburbs for about 15 minutes straight and didn’t even see a single soul. When he finally reached the city exits, they were packed with cars trying to exit the city. There was no way in hell that he was getting out. He proceeded to quickly turn back before he gets blocked in. He knew a couple of other roads that led to the countryside instead of the freeway. It was the long way round but he knew was gonna be able to keep moving without any delays.
It was about a couple of hours later and he was about 30 miles out from Philadelphia. He was quiet and uneventful with only a few cars passing by him but he hadn’t seen another car for about 30 minutes and it was starting scare him. He was becoming anxious and fearful of what’s happening to the world right now. The fact that he he can’t get in contact with his daughter was the most frightful thing. It was no coincidence that the loss of contact had to happen during the chaos. Is she alright? Is she safe? Is she even alive? Jakob tried to shake these thoughts out of his head. He’s no good if he’s always panicking. However, right in the middle of his train of thought, a man walked onto the road and instinctively, Jakob tried to swerve out of the way but it caused the car to flip and crash to the side of the road. Leaving Jakob upside down and unconscious.
Jakob awoke god knows how many hours late, upside down and bleeding. The first thing that caught his attention wasn’t the state of the car or his injuries but was the man trying to claw and bite the cracked windshield in front of him. He had never seen a man so demonic in his life. His eyes were deathly pale, mouth red with blood and gore and half his face was ripped apart like paper but it didn’t seem to bother. It started making animalistic growls and was trying to break the windshield with great desire. It was almost like it wanted to kill him. Jakob had never been more afraid in his entire life. He had lived a long life and never before ad he seen such evil. In a quick attempt to escape, he started trying to unlock his seat belt. It sent him crashing to the ceiling of the car below. The creature was making steady progress of the glass; it was starting to break. He looked around noticed the boot was unlocked and open thanks to the crash. He started trying to crawl his way to the back, hoping that the creature doesn’t think to go around. His body was aching with pain, especially his left leg which seems to be sprained. After much crawling he made it to the back but the creature had managed to break through and was trying to reach Jakob’s leg but he managed to kick the creature away and get out the boot of the car. He didn’t know which way to go and just started limping through the woods as fast as he could. Unfortunately, the creature managed to get itself out of the car and was now walking slowly through the woods after Jakob. Jakob tried limping as fast as he could but his stamina and pain endurance in his old age was starting to let him down. He could hear the creature following behind but he just kept limping until he reached an opening into a field. In the distance of the field he could a building of some sort, a facility from the looks of it. He tried waving in the hopes that someone was home but he couldn’t see clearly if someone did. As he kept getting to the closer to the building, he could feel the creature right on his heels. All seemed lost for him but out of nowhere, a gunshot whizzed right by Jakob’s head and all he heard was the sound of the body hitting the ground. He dropped to his knees and saw a couple of figures approach him the distance. He then proceeded to pass out from the pain.
Jakob in a bed in the middle of a sickbay ward. He wasn’t the only one in the room, there were a few other injured people. He was then met by a doctor and another authority figure holding an assault rifle. They answered any questions Jakob had and explained where he was and what his previous occupation was. Once he was patched up after a few days, he was then put to work as a religious counselor because of his background experience.They don’t have any form of rabbi or reverend, so he’s the best they’ve got until they actually get one. Jakob also couldn’t believe his ears when they said that the dead were rising and that they were trying to eat people. Fear struck the very core of his heart. Is this what had happened to Dawn? Is that why he couldn’t get in contact? Is she one of them? He was so scared to find out that it’s that very fear that was keeping him there. He keeps telling himself that he has to go to New York and find his daughter but the truth of finding out what happened to the only light to ever exist in his life is too painful for a father to bear...
Personality:Jakob is quiet and a bit cowardly. He hasn’t been an adventurous young bandit since his youth. When he became a father, he also became more cautious, timid and wiser. He’s less likely to look for fights and usually keeps to himself but has no problem with people. He’ll try to help in dangerous situations but will act as almost a third wheel. Worried that everyone will see him as a liability due to his age, he won’t ask for help and will keep trying to push himself beyond his physical capacity. What he lacks in physical ability, he makes up for it in advice and conversation. He’s more than willing to listen to other people’s troubles and tries to make their emotional weight his. He’s a good man, a fearful man but a good one.
Appearance:Jakob is about 6 foot, has hazel eyes, a beard, is going bald and has some liver spots on his hands and head. He usually wears a coat with fingerless gloves to keep him warm. Wears normal khaki trousers and worn out shoes. He has several permanent scars and cuts on his body from his dark days. He usually carries around a small satchel with a notebook, pen and some minor supplies. Unfortunately, he has no personal items due to them being hastily left in his overturned car.
Strengths & Weaknesses:His main weaknesses has already been explained in the Personality section but he’s a little bit cowardly and not well suited to act as soldier for the group. He’s very cautious and can be a fifth wheel in dangerous situations. He’s also not physically for for his age and might not be able to walk as far distances as the young ones in the group. Worried that the group will see him as a liability because of this, he won’t ask for help for his age and will try to push himself physically, even if it means it’s it’ll hurt.
His strengths are mostly to do with his personality. He’s enjoys listening to people’s problems and tries to help them feel better about themselves. Whenever an argument breaks out, he’ll try to fix it and calm the parties involved down. He’ll try and carry other people’s emotional burdens to help through the chaotic world and is able to give sound advice to people due to his experience in life.
Former Occupation:Early 60s to late 80s: drug mule, drug smuggler, prostitute, hired help, thug, etc. (lot of dirty shit) Early 90s up till the beginning of the apocalypse: Religious studies and philosophy teacher.
Family:Father died before he was born, mother abandoned him when he was a baby, currently unknown (likely dead). Has an adoptive daughter in her late 20s, living in New York, currently unknown whether or not she is dead or alive.
