PLOT

Trekking across a sandy desert was not Dietrich’s idea of a good time. Hell, just walking from where they woke up to the cave he was entering had been hot enough and the cool shade was a welcomed relief to the young man. Once he was in the shade, Dietrich unscrewed the cap of his water bottle and took a very small sip. Just enough to wet his mouth really and it took a lot of willpower not to down half the water canister in one gulp.

“Just think, we’ve got two more days of this”, Dietrich said out loud as he turned around to see one of the others join him in the cave. It was going to be hard, no question about it and knowing how thirsty he was now, Dietrich was starting to get a little worried. How long would the water last them? What about salt? After losing water, losing salt was the biggest problem they’d have to worry about in the desert and Dietrich hadn’t noticed any salt packets in the crate.

He looked around the darkened cave. What were the chances of finding rock salt in here if they needed it? Dietrich honestly didn’t know but he was hopeful. The cave seemed fairly deep although it was hard to tell since it was so dark and Dietrich was hesitant to go too far back. Right now Ethan’s power would come in really handy for exploring the cave and Dietrich wished he had something useful for a power.

Cloning oneself just was not practical in a situation like this and would probably just drain Dietrich of water and salt anyway. “Should we search it?” Dietrich asked, his tone uncertain as he scratched his head. Fucking sand. Dietrich brushed the sand out his dark dyed hair, messing it up even more. Though he had bigger concerns that how he looked at the moment.

"You don't think there's anything back there, do you?"

Glas' pace had slowed but the cave was in sight so she didn't need to direct people anymore. Trailing into the cave behind Dietrich, she smiled. The sun off her now tanned skin was a beautiful release. The sand inside the mouth of the cave was still warm under her bare feet, but there were a lot more cool rocks further in.

She shrugged at Deitrich's comment. Taking a long swig of her own water bottle, she leaned against the wall. Sand coated the bottom of her skirt and itched at her bare legs, but Glas was glad for the light flowing fabric opposed to pants.

"Maybe water?" She said simply. If there were large animals in this area than they were likely further down inside also. The cave was one of the few cool areas for any animal to go and therefore would be highly sought after.

"Hard to see... Maybe we wait for more before... searching?"

Jacob followed after Dietrich as the German boy lead him across the sand to the cave he had pointed out the others. It was a good thing Dietrich had such good eyesight because Jacob himself would have missed it. Once in the shade, Jacob sighed with relief. “Man it’s good to be out of the sun”, he said out loud to which Dietrich pointed out there was two more days of this to contend with.

“You’re a glass half empty kinda guy, aren’t you?” Jacob muttered but it was true so it couldn’t be argued. “Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that”, he added sarcastically. Then Glas joined them after, following along and Jacob glanced at her before turning his attention back to Dietrich.

“Yes, we should search it now”, he agreed. “We ought to know if there’s anything dangerous in here before we get too comfortable and who knows, we could find something useful”. It would be great if they had light but Jacob didn’t see Ethan anywhere and Sofia had the only light source included in the crate. Can’t use that anyway, Jacob thought. Not if we want to get rescued. His mind then went to the crate which in retrospect Jacob realized he should have grabbed because they could have tried starting a fire to make some light. Not that Jacob had any idea how to start a fire.

God, I’m useless, the man realized. Though Jacob had a power that was useful for surviving, it was useless here because Jacob didn’t know dick about desert plants. He thought it was possible to grow plants to get water from but he didn’t have any shoots or seeds and Jacob wouldn’t know which of the very scarce plants in the desert he could use. There was nothing to stop him from picking a poisonous plant. Even if I could find one. So far Jacob hadn’t seen any plantlife during their little trek in the sand.

Then Jacob had a thought. His watch light! Aside from his usual clothes, Jacob was also wearing a watch as he always did and that watch had a light in it. It wasn’t as powerful as a flashlight by any means but it was better than nothing. “We could use this to see our way a little”, Jacob said to Dietrich as he showed the light by pressing the button on his watch. “What do you think? Should we give it a go?”