Name: Jacob Rourke
Age: 27
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 151 lbs
Equipment:Gunsmithing tools
Gun cleaning kit
AK diagrams
Multitool
3 cans of beans
2 cans of chili
2 canteens filled with water
MP3
Deck of cards
Weapons:AK-74 | PSO-1 scope | 2 magazines | 75 5.45x39mm rounds total
CZ-75 B SA | 3 magazines | 50 9x19mm rounds total
Tactical knife
Previous Occupation: Gunsmithing apprentice.
Appearance: Jacob is a pretty average looking guy, although a bit on the lanky side. He is not, however, unfit. He actually has very well-shaped muscles, they're just skinny. He also has green eyes and short brown hair. He does occasionally get a 5 o clock shadow, but he tries to keep his facial hair cut down.
Bio: Jacob was in the middle of disassembling a Browning Hi-Power when he heard the window of his boss's gun store shatter. He took a step out of the workshop to check on the front desk, but what he wasn't prepared to see was a mass of people desperately clamoring for any gun they could get their hands on. He would have drawn his own CZ-75 if it were just one person, but this was a crowd of people, and he was hopelessly outnumbered. When shots started to be fired, Jacob made a run for the rear exit, caring more for his safety than the fact that his boss would kill him when he found out the entire inventory was cleared out and he was the only one there. It wasn't until he got outside that he saw the walking corpses and realized what was happening. Knowing his boss was now the least of his worries, he fought his way back home to grab what he could, then began to work his way out of Dallas.
It took him two days of creeping around to make it out of the city and into relative safety. He knew he was several steps ahead of anyone else who made it, being armed and having a few days' worth of food and water, along with general supplies. He didn't really have a ton of friends, and most of his family lived in Chicago, so there wasn't much to keep him from leaving Dallas completely behind. So, with plenty of supplies and a penchant for helping people, Jacob began to actively seek out other survivors and help them along for a few days at a time. He wasn't comfortable with the idea of hanging around with complete strangers for extended periods of time, though it was less out of distrust than it was out of fear that he begin to care for them enough that he would be afraid to lose them.
He spent the next several months alone, looking for food, supplies, and people in need by day, and by night making modifications to his rifle, as well as taking some endeavors into crafting his own AK out of scrap and spare parts. After about 5 months, he found a small group holed up in a farm about fifty miles from Tulsa, OK. Months beforehand, he would have ignored it and kept walking, but with winter approaching he decided to look into staying, though just for the winter. He was met with suspicion, but he figured that was to be expected. A lone guy, armed to the teeth and with a fair amount of supplies seemed a bit too convenient, but after some convincing, he managed to get in. He made it perfectly clear that he intended to leave once winter was over, but he would contribute in any way he could until then. As it turned out, his gunsmithing skills earned him the respect of pretty much everyone in the camp, and he got to know everyone else pretty well.
By spring, Jacob was somewhat torn between sticking to his original plan and staying with the group for a bit longer. They all came off as being decent people, and he had come to care for them. He tried to avoid it, but it was one of those things that crept up almost imperceptibly. One day he was cleaning the guns, talking to TJ when Ashley told them to find a place to hide and stay quiet. As it turned out, a herd was passing through at the time, and although everyone in the barn was safely ignored by the walkers, they all knew Nick was out there gathering food. They learned several days later that he was attacked by the herd when they found his mutilated body in some nearby woods.
Jacob disappeared from the group later that day without a word. He had broken one of his cardinal rules; never get too close to people. He had managed to avoid seeing for himself the corpse of someone he cared about, and it struck him harder than the emotional trauma he experienced from the initial outbreak. He had been substantially lucky until then, and he began to grow self-destructive. He started making riskier supply runs, using less caution and more brute force, even going so far as to run into Tulsa without a second thought. He rationalized it as wanting to find a stash of supplies, but subconsciously he knew he was trying to get himself killed, and nearly succeeded.
He became barricaded within a building one day, stuck between making a mad dash through the crowd of walkers surrounding the building and just waiting it out. After a week of the latter, he was found and rescued by the group, but not without them losing Bradley. Jacob saw Bradley's death as being his fault, which of course didn't make his mental state any better. Now, instead of just being self-destructive, he was also quasi-suicidal and guilty. Of course, everyone else was having none of this, and they kept a close eye on him, trying to simultaneously keep his spirits up and keep him from doing something crazy. It took until late fall, but he managed to come around.
Even with the bonds he had made over the months, Jacob felt as though it was time for him to move on. He waited once more for the winter months to pass before deciding to take his leave. He thanked everyone immensely and headed north. It took him some time to reach Kansas, but it was shortly after arriving that he found another band of survivors to make contact with. He thought it through and decided that it was better to have friends in a world like this than not and decided to make contact. He has been with them for two months.