Jake was born in North Georgia and was raised by abusive parents,his mother and father both heavy on drugs and alcohol. The only person who brought up Jake was his big brother Ryan, who was not the best role model for him as he was heavy on drugs and a bit of bad influence with his law breaking. Jake's mother and father died a while before the outbreak due to both over dosing on heroin, when the outbreak hit, Jake and his brother Ryan took to the mountains where Ryan taught Jake how to hunt and track and prepare his successful kills for food. A while into living off the land and hitting the small local drug stores and houses around the area, they found themselves hitting a wall on supplies so decide to travel further a field hoping to find more stuff to scavenge.