I finally got to Oregon. It isn't explained why I wanted to go there. Because it has the least amount of zombies? OK, I guess that works as an explanation. I have lived in Oregon, and I can rate Oregon as the state that is least likely to have zombies.
Unfortunately, one of the members of my team wandered away and wasn't found, right before I got to Oregon. There are two possible explanations for that:
1) The same member was repeatedly bitten by a zombie, without noticeably becoming a zombie. It was a delayed effect. However, that fails to explain why all my other team members did not also become zombies (including my own self, repeatedly attacked by zombies in my scavenging adventures).
2) The effect is a vestige of the original Oregon Trail, where you had children, and children could possibly wander off for no reason and not come back.
I favor the first explanation. I love how the very simple graphical interface makes for a better game through imagination. The highways from Washington D.C. to Oregon will be fully lined with urban structures to become ruined, the fate resulting from overpopulation, no doubt, which explains the presence of zombies all along the route.
