A/N: Krys, radio? Man, am I dumb or what? I never even thought about a radio and I'm sure Daniel would have. OK, lets assume it's broken or lost. That works! Slinks away muttering to self - this is why I shouldn't post without a beta! She's have caught that. This is really short, but you only have to wait one day for the next chapter.
It took several hours for them to walk about half a mile to the trees. Arwen needed to stop frequently to breathe. Daniel finally jogged on ahead and dropped the backpacks and returned to help Dr. Jago. After that they made slightly better time.
It was only about two hours after sunrise, but Daniel estimated it was already about ninety degrees. It was going to be well over a hundred in the afternoon. Daniel knew he needed to find shelter first and then search for a source of clean water.
He got Dr. Jago settled under the shade of a tree where she promptly fell asleep. Daniel looked around a little more closely at the area. They were in a wadi and they couldn't camp here – too much possible danger of a flash flood running through the dry stream bed.
He walked a few hundred feet in a direction he calculated was upstream and found that an underground spring broke through to the surface creating a small oasis. He knelt by the side of the well and sniffed at the water. No rotten smell. He noticed animal tracks leading to and away from the water and figured the water was safe. He dipped his fingers into the water and licked a couple of drops off. Nothing. No burning or tingling.
He knew he was already dehydrated. He had given all their water to Dr. Jago. His mouth was dry, his lips were beginning to crack, and it was hard to swallow because his throat was scratchy. He cupped his hands and drank as much as his empty stomach would hold. Leaning back against a tree trunk he looked around.
Some of the trees looked very much like date palms and did have some kind of fruit hanging from them. Other trees looked like the tamarisk trees he remembered from Egypt. The whole area reminded him of North Africa and the Middle East. He knew he had the skills to survive here without too much trouble. He'd seen evidence of small animals around the water hole; he could set traps. There were enough dead branches laying around for firewood; he could cook the meat. He'd even seen some cactus that looked very much like prickly pear cactus from the American Southwest. He knew those were edible. He also noticed a few trees similar to pinon pines, which had edible nuts. There were also some scrub oaks with acorns. They might get tired of the lack of variety, but they wouldn't starve.
Now that food and water were taken care of, he needed to find a good area to set up camp. They wouldn't be able to even think about trying to find the gate until Arwen's ribs had healed.
He stood up again and looked uphill. He had hoped to find some trees for shelter, but knew it wouldn't be safe to camp in the wadi. No trees. Well, he'd have to build something, but that would need to wait until after dark. It was too hot to work during the day.
He filled up both canteens and decided he'd wait until dark to move Dr. Jago. On the way back he cleared a trail so they wouldn't stumble over rocks or debris from the trees while they walked in the dark.
He found Dr. Jago still sleeping where he'd left her. He woke her up and made her drink some water and then they both settled down to sleep through the heat of the day.