You make yourself as comfortable as you can in the Teamsters Tent but it is very crowded there: not only are there too manypeople in too small a space but one of the Reed's Teamsters Milt Elliott is visiting you as well. A snowstorm blows over the Mountains and it brings death with it. Jacob Donner is the first to succumb. He dies while sitting at a table, his head bowed in his hands, the very picture of despair. Donner's death is just the beginning.


Samuel Shoemaker, a teamster for the Donner's dies next and he is soon followed by Joseph Reinhardt. Knowing he is dying Reinhardt confesses in front of you, Doris Wolfinger and George Donner that he shot and killed Mr Wolfinger but that he regrets it. He never explains why and the confession is of little comfort to the poor widow. James Smith, a teamster who actually works for the Reeds but has somehow wound up at the Donner Camp dies of the cold too. That night with the winter breeze piercing your body to the core you are struck by the urge to walk out into the cold and end it all rather than suffer this slow and lingering demise.


What do you do?

You summon all the strength you have to remain in the teamsterâ€™s tent

You survive the initial series of deaths which leave George Donner and the teamsters Noah James and Jean Baptiste as the only healthy men in a camp full of women and children. For the next two months you survive. Several people die at the Truckee Lake Camp but for some reason no one else at the Alder Creek camp dies, perhaps because the Donner's have slightly more food than everyone else. Finally in the second half of February three healthy-looking men arrive at the camp. They are rescuers from California, having made contact with members of the Snowshoe Party they have travelled out to bring people back.


It quickly becomes apparent that there are too few of them to take everyone to California with them, George Donner's hand has become infected and many of the others are too weak to go. It is agreed that the men will take Elitha, Lenna and George Donner and William Hook (the weakest children) with them as well as Doris Wolfinger and wagon-driver Noah James, who is in very bad shape. Wagon-driver Jean Baptiste wants to leave too but the settlers persuade him to stay and help look after the Donner's. At both Alder Creek and Truckee Lake the remaining men (George Donner, Patrick Breen, Louis Keseberg and Donner wagon-driver Jean Trudeau) have chosen to stay so that the women and children can leave in safety. More help is on it's way to rescue them but if you truly insist you will be allowed to accompany the First Relief down.


What do you do?

You demand that the rescuers take you too

After much begging the members of the First Relief let you join them in travelling on to California and safety but the going is hard. Most of the children are so weak the rescuers have to take turns carrying them while you and the other adults stagger on as best you can. One morning John Denton, an English wagon-driver who has been of great assistance around the camps, is unable to continue and insists that he is left behind at the fire. Finding him unable to walk the other settlers agree and he is left behind.


What do you do?

You stay behind and try to persuade him to keep moving

You sit down next to John and try to get him to keep going but he just shakes his head and sings out a poem: "I look on scenes of past delight, without my wonted pleasures, as a mister on the bed of death looks coldly on his treasures." Your bodies are found a few weeks later.