Yellow
"I can feel my skin stretching and blistering in this heat," Rodney complained honestly.
"Aren't you wearing your sun cream?" Sheppard asked.
"Yes," he snapped. "But it doesn't stop me being hot!" He felt anger building up inside him.
His team mates ignored his moaning, even as his feet sunk so deeply into the fine sand with every step that the grains flowed over the opening of each shoe.
He had sunglasses on, but there was only one colour filling his vision on the desert world.
Sheppard laughed as they crested the top of a high dune, but the sound was devoid of any happiness. "Well, we've got the sand, but where's the beach?"
"And the scantily clad women," Rodney added with a sly smile.
Ronon smirked and Teyla rolled her eyes at the men.
The twin suns shone down and after a while Teyla said, "This heat is most unpleasant. Where is the energy reading, Dr McKay?"
Rodney was pressing the skin of his right forearm, checking for burns. He abruptly stopped and folded his arms over his chest, "See, even Teyla says this place is awful!" He waved up at the suns and grimaced, "We'll all get instant skin cancer in this inferno. We should have brought a Jumper instead of going on this death march."
Ronon looked indifferent as he spoke, "You said the reading was, 'close to the gate,' McKay."
"It was!" Rodney whined. He lowered his voice and said under his breath, "But it's moved away now."
Sheppard sighed and spun around to look at him sternly. Rodney flinched back and was glad he could not see his team leader's eyes. He only saw the endless sea of sand reflected in the sunglasses.
"Why is it moving away from us?" Sheppard asked.
"I don't know!" McKay squeaked indignantly, "Maybe your hair scared it away."
"Or it heard your whining," Ronon mumbled.
"How far?" Sheppard asked in disappointment.
Rodney drew his scanner forward miserably and said, "Ten miles."
Ronon grunted, "That's not far."
"It is in this sauna! Especially when your feet have been rubbed raw by sandpaper and your skin's crispy burnt and hanging off!"
Teyla winced and Sheppard's face fell as he said, "Alright, you win, McKay. Let's get a Jumper."
Rodney smiled smugly, but quickly stopped when his dry lips split open.
They all turned around and retraced their rapidly fading foot holes in the shifting sand back to the gate.
Rodney knew there was sand chafing the skin in between his toes and it felt like he was bleeding. He doubted whether he would be able to walk at all very soon. He looked at the scanner again sadly and the energy reading was now completely out of range.