There is a story to it - which is structured like a treasure hunt to send people all over the map (and hopefully they'll draw the map as they do so the next player can find where to go when they're told to go to the camp site or whatever). I suspect nobody will ever discover the cure though!
Items are an issue - I did them like that because it meant I could just add items and not have to code special states (e.g. "holding a weapon") - if I build this out I'll probably add equipped weapons and clothing which will hopefully fix some of that.
The map was the spark of the idea for this game - but I'm not sure as it is it's much fun to draw the map - the tools are too limited. I'd like to improve on that.
Thanks for playing :)