text: [Themes: edutainment, historical]
  
  Despite her wishes Sarah Fosdick does not die. Her sister Mary Graves returns for her and the pair cut up Jay Fosdick's body for food. Somehow Mary helps her sister rejoin the rest of the group and you silently eat the cold meat, the dead man's wife watching with tears in her eyes before silently accepting some flesh and chewing. Jay Fosdick's death means you, William Eddy and William Foster are the last surviving men along with the five women and Foster is beginning to show alarming signs of derangement. Drawing you and Eddy to one side he quietly whispers that at least one of the women must be killed to feed the others.
  
  William Eddy's temper snaps and throwing a large stick to Foster he draws his knife and barks "defend yourself Foster!" You restrain Eddy while Foster stands motionless staring at Eddy before quietly walking away. For the moment danger is averted but the next day you come across the two Indians, Luis and Salvador, lying near death in the snow. Foster declares that the two Indians must die. When Eddy protests against this Foster draws his pistol and calmly shoots Luis in the head.
  
  What do you do?
  
  > stand back
  You step back as Foster shoots Salvador in the head as well before dropping the pistol. The Indians are quickly carved up and a fire lit to cook their flesh. Foster sits silently by the flames, staring into their depths and not even his wife Sarah can trigger a reaction. Wearily you stumble on and three days later you meet with a small group of Indians who are so horrified by your skeletal appearance that they give you all some acorns to eat. The Indians are friendly and indicate for you to follow them. The women and Foster are too exhausted to walk so you and William Eddy follow the Indians and finally reach Johnson's Ranch, the first settlement in California.
  
  When you arrive, leaving a trail of blood, Eddy knocks on the door which is answered by a young lady. In a broken voice you ask for a little bread. The girl takes one look at the pair of you, bursts into tears and you are both hurried inside. Oh the wonder of it! Hot tea, food, warm beds and all the comforts you could want are provided! Supplies are hastily sent to the other six survivors. You set out with seventeen people a month ago: two turned back, eight died and only seven survived.
  
  For now you don't care: you are safe. Your terrible ordeal is over, thank god!
  
  > get some much-needed rest
  It doesn't take long for two familiar faces to turn up at Johnson's Ranch: James Reed and William McCutchen who both made it over the mountains ahead of the Donner Party. You and Eddy give them tell them what happened in the mountains and you are not surprised to learn Reed is putting together an expedition to rescue survivors. Another expedition is already ready at Fort Sutter and Eddy, despite the ordeal you have already been through is determined to lead it back to the Donner Party. It is up to you which you join: Eddy's is leaving quicker but his health is broken while Reed's and McCutchen's is leaving later but both are healthy.
  
  Which expedition party do you want to accompany?
  
  > Eddy's First Relief
  The journey out to where the Donner Party is stranded is a nightmare, despite the fact you have plenty of food the snow has begun to thaw a little. There are fourteen of you in this rescue party but halfway through the journey William Eddy, still weakened by his earlier ordeal, is forced to turn back. Two more men are left behind with some of the provisions while the rest of you struggle on towards the Donner Party. The group becomes very discouraged and when three more men turn back, the rest begin muttering that they'll be trapped in the snow like the Donner Party and die too.
  
  What do you do?
  
  > press on
  Pressing on bravely you and the others stumble over the mountains and three days later you reach a huddle of cabins on the shore of Truckee Lake late in the evening. Here you find less than forty emaciated survivors, mostly women and children. The first that you meet is a gaunt woman with a hollowed face who asks if you have come from California or heaven. Apparently your companions have been dying on an almost daily basis and your arrival prompts a great many tears of joy and prayers to God.
  
  Patrick Breen is one of the healthiest remaining alive and though he has not lost any of his children he tells you a dozen have died since the Snowshoe Party left and that the Donner Brothers and others are further down the mountain at Alder Creek. It is perhaps fortunate that William Eddy did not accompany the expedition all this way as his wife Eleanor and youngest child Margaret are dead, the other child James is practically all bone. It is a terrible sight.
  
  Pushing on ahead to Alder Creek you get there to find Jacob Donner and three others have died and those that remain are in a poor condition: George Donner has an infected hand from an earlier injury and there are many starving women and children there. Of the two remaining teamsters alive with the Donner's one, Noah James, is too weak to help and though the other, Jean Baptiste is in better health he does not want to stay and it takes a great deal of persuasion to get him to look after the Donner's. Returning to the Truckee Lake Camp you discover that in your absence another settler has died, the infant Catherine Pike.
  
  Finally those settlers strong enough to get down the mountain are assembled: twenty-one of them. The rest will have to wait for James Reed's Second Relief. The settlers you are taking down with you are the weak teamsters John Denton and Noah James, women Margret Reed, Philippe Keseberg, Doris Wolfinger and Eliza Williams and fifteen children. With such a weakened party of settlers the return journey will be far worse than the one there.
  
  > Back to California...
  The return journey with the survivors is a difficult one. Teamster John Denton gives out and is left behind to die. The child Ada Keseberg dies of cold and another child, William Hook dies after over-gorging on supplies. You pass James Reed, William McCutchen and the Second Relief party going up into the mountains. Reed is overjoyed to see most of his family safe while McCutchen is devastated to learn of his infant daughter Harriet's death. They press on.
  
  Nearing California you pass a Third Relief party going the other way led by William Eddy and William Foster. Both eagerly seek out news of their families: Eddy is devastated to learn that his wife and daughter died in the mountains. Parting ways the next day you reach Johnson's Ranch with your remaining eighteen survivors. There you rest. Reed and McCutchen come in a few days later with just three survivors, two of them Reed's children, having abandoned the rest in the mountains. A brave man called John Stark later brings in the eleven survivors from this group, Eddy and Foster return soon after with five survivors and state that they do not think there will be any more. George Donner, his wife Tamzene, their nephew Samuel, Levinah Jackson and Louis Keseberg remain alive in the mountains, having resorted to cannibalism to survive. In the first half of April William Foster organises a final Relief party to search for survivors. You can either accompany this group of if you have had enough of the business remain at Sutter's Fort with the other survivors.
  
  What do you do?
  
  > accompany Foster's expedition
  You join William Foster's expedition, which is hopeful of finding at least Tamzene Donner or Louis Keseberg still alive as they were in the best health. It takes you less than a week to reach the camps in the mountains, the snow melting fast all around you as spring descends and what you find is terrible. At Truckee Lake human limbs and bones lie in every direction. Moving on to the Alder Creek camp you find more horrors including the body of George Donner torn apart with pieces of his brain in a kettle. Returning to the Truckee Lake camp you are surprised to discover Louis Keseberg, skeletal but alive.
  
  As Keseberg ate Foster's child the two are not on the best of terms and the fact that Keseberg has clearly been stealing things from the Donner Camp and using them as his own does not improve things. When large amounts of money are found on him Foster accuses him of murdering Tamzene Donner and threatens to hang him and it is only with some reluctance that the group agree to take him back to California. Before leaving the camp, the last of the Donner Party to be rescued, Keseberg looks back at the cabins and mutters "I hope God will forgive me for what I've done." It takes just five days to get down the mountain and back to Johnson's Ranch. Along the way Keseberg discovers the corpse of his dead daughter Ada in the snow.
  
  > Back to California...
  Foster's Fourth Relief discovers Louis Keseberg still alive and that last survivor of the Donner Party is brought out of the mountains and into California. Altogether of the 90 members of the Donner Party (including you) 43 died, including infants Jonathon and Elizabeth Graves who die that summer from their sufferings in the mountains. Of those that survive some like Louis Keseberg are branded as cannibals and murderers. You were lucky to survive this truly terrible experience: a story that will go down in American History as a tale of cannibalism and death in the Sierra Mountains.