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 wait for more help

You choose to remain with George Donner and his family at Alder Creek, helping Jean Baptiste look after the two women and seven children there. There is some talk about eating human flesh but fortunately you manage to resist the urge to do that and in the first days of March a second rescue party arrives at Alder Creek led by James Reed and William McCutchen. They bring a little more food and offer to take three of the Donner children out but intend to leave a man behind to help Jean Baptiste look after the Donner family until the next rescue mission arrives.


What do you do?

You insist on leaving with the Second Relief

You are incredibly relieved to join the other survivors who are leaving, which consists of Elizabeth Graves (Franklin Graves's widow), her four children, Patrick Breen, his wife Margaret and their five children, two of James Reed's children and three of the Donner's children. Your group sets off and initially makes good progress before disaster strikes.


Just a few days into the journey you are struck by a fierce snowstorm on open ground and are forced to huddle down below blankets: James Reed nearly collapses from the effort of making sure everyone is safe. Huddling together against the fierce cold you do your best. At one point during the storm it is discovered that Isaac Donner has died, slipping away so silently that the two girls huddled either side of him did not notice his death. In the midst of the cold the thought strikes you that the child must be buried.


What do you do?

You dig a grave for Isaac Donner

Against Breen and Reed's protests you carry the Donner boy's body out of the group and try to dig a grave in the snow. It is hopeless in the midst of a blizzard and the grave becomes your own when you collapse into it and do not move again.