It was somewhere after midnight when Major Carter opened the large packing crate in which she and the Colonel had been hiding. She tapped lightly on the crate next to hers.

"Daniel?" she said softly keeping her voice to a whisper, not sure if they were truly alone. One side of the crate next to her opened, containing one archeologist and a master Jaffa. Daniel began to help Bra'tac from the box. Sam moved over to the crate next to Daniel's.

"Teal'c?" she whispered, trying to alert her friend before her tampering surprised him. She began to remove the side of the crate.

They had found a whole room full of these crates when she and Daniel had gone exploring. Most were still filled with merchandise. The Goa'uld had left most of the equipment of the world. They must have considered the level of technology too primitive to deal with.

Once the side was off, Daniel helped her get Teal'c free of the crate. These crates had come in very handy in hiding from the Jaffa. They had heard noises outside several times that day, but nothing in the last couple of hours.

"Okay, let's load up."

They retrieved the travois from its hiding place and proceeded to get the group moving, carefully erasing all evidence of their having been there.

The team made it to the perimeter before spotting a Jaffa. Luckily the Jaffa had been spread out fairly far apart. Sam managed to take them out with the zat gun…permanently.

Within an hour the group had made it to the edge of the forest. Although in ways this forest resembled more of a jungle than a forest. It wasn't so dense you had to hack your way through like a tropical jungle, but did have high canopy trees, long hanging vines, and an abundance of wildlife. The wildlife ranged from all kinds of birds to those little lizards that Daniel had encountered the first day. Everyone kept an eye out for the lizards not wanting a repeat coma performance, and Daniel was down right jumpy whenever he spotted one. The vines, for their part, hung down from the tall trees and ran across the paths tripping unsuspecting people, like their archeologist who had tripped over them at least 3 times in the first two hours.

They kept moving most of the night stopping only occasionally for half-hour breaks. They had to get as much distance from the Goa'uld stronghold as they could before daybreak, when the much faster Jaffa would be out looking for them. The slow-paced caravan had crossed at least 10 miles by the time the suns had come over the horizon. The team still had a good 10 miles more to go to get to the Stargate. Sam knew they had to keep moving since sooner or later the Jaffa were going to find them. They needed to get to that gate and quickly.

At least she wasn't as worried about the Colonel. He had come around during the trip through the jungle. Sam had been able to get him walking, mostly by constantly nudging him along in the form of orders, and more than half supporting him as he tried to walk. She was sure the Colonel wasn't really there, even if his eyes were open, especially when he gave her one of those blank glassy eyed stares. 'He must have one heck of a concussion.' She thought as she looked over at him.

There had to be a way to speed up her crew. She looked around at them despairingly. Daniel looked like he was about to drop, having pulled the travois for over 7 hours now, in fact he looked numb. And Bra'tac…well Bra'tac was Bra'tac, however he didn't look too well either after hopping through the forest all night with one leg and a crutch. 'Maybe I should look for a new place for them to hide.' It didn't look too promising. They were fresh out of caves.

'Or', a new thought struck her suddenly, 'maybe a way to slow down the Jaffa… How?' Her team wasn't going to make it much further without rest. She was looking over at Daniel. They were on a break and he was leaning against a rock with his eyes closed. He was so tired he didn't even care if one of those lizards crossed his path again, he just wanted to close his eyes.

Teal'c was attempting to talk to him.

"Daniel Jackson."

"Wh…What?" Daniel became alert with a start.

"I am curious. How did you and Major Carter come up with such a device?"

He was looking at the travois on which he was still loaded.

"Oh…" the archeologist blinked his eyes, focusing on Teal'c, "…The North American Indians used these to transport their belongings and their sick or elderly people from one village site to another. The branch was used to disguise the trail of such slow moving groups from rival tribe's warriors."

Teal'c had already guessed the branch's purpose, he was just interested in how they had gotten the idea. These two team members were constantly surprising him with their resourcefulness.

"Of course… they didn't have wheels on theirs and it was pulled by horses not…"

Jackson had slipped into professor mode but did sound a little sheepish as he added, "…me."

"Horses?" This time it was Bra'tac that spoke.

"Four legged beasts of burden that primitive Tau'ri used for transportation," Teal'c answered.

"Ah."

Major Carter walked over to the group. A smirk came over her face as she watched the exchange between the men.

"Daniel, you okay?"

She had been concerned how tired the scientist had looked. He opened his eyes again to look at her and started to struggle to his feet. She put a hand out to stop him.

"No, stay put… get as much rest as you can."

"Oh, I'm fine… just a bit tired."

She noticed the black and blue mark forming on his arm, "When did this happen?"

Daniel looked over at his arm as if noticing it for the first time.

"Oh… I think I got it from ONE of the times I fell today." He grimaced as he spoke, kicking savagely at the nearby vine taking out his frustrations.

Sam just took in the scene, mouth slightly open. Finally she said, "Thanks, Daniel… You gave me an idea."

She smiled at the archeologist patting his back as she got up to leave.

"What?" came Daniel's confused reply to Major Carter's rapidly retreating back.

*** to be continued ***