Rushing with my spear tip raised, I focused my attention at the leader. He and his black horse didn't move in the slightest.

As I drew nearer, the air got hotter and hotter. It was as if I was no longer in a desert but in an actual oven where someone turned on the heat.

Small embers of yellow fire flashed from under the leader's horse's hoof and spread like a water ripple outwards.

The burning sand was scorched and changed from a yellow-brown colour to a melted, red-glowing mass. As the fire ripple moved outwards, it crashed against my horse.

*Neigh*

The horse cried in pain. Reacting fast, I jumped down from the horse before its body hit the ground. Its hooves were now glowing red and it struggled in pain to cool them down.

'From where came that fire?'

I have never seen anything like that. In the days since the apocalypse started, I only saw a few people and a lot of Creepers, but I never saw something like that. I wondered if those people are monsters too; like some kind of new species?

Gritting my teeth and standing on the scorched sand, I rammed the spear-shoe into the ground and stood with my chest out. A taste of iron filled my mouth and I spat the bloody taste out.

*spit* *tzzz*

The ground was so hot that even my blood vaporised after coming into contact with the sand. This wasn't the heat a desert should have. This is not normal at all, even in an apocalypse.

A grin crept onto the leader's cracked lips and a drop of blood flowed out from the cracks. He stuck his slimy tongue out and licked the blood from his lips, nearly in ecstasy.

His pupils enlarged and he put his feet onto the horse's back, standing like a savage on it.

He clutched his spear with his right hand and held it wide into the air above him. His other hand made an aiming motion towards me.

He jumped up and was now more than 2 meters above me and came crushing down with a spear aimed at me.

I held my spear horizontally, deflected the spearhead with the shaft, and redirected it towards the ground, leaving him wide open.

When his spear pierced the ground beside my feet, I drew my spear from a horizontal position sideward and aimed at his unprotected heart.

Thrusting my spear forward, it pierced his chest and embedded its head in his clothes, before I withdrew it again.

Blood was running down his black clothes and trickled onto the scorching sand, ending with a sizzling sound.

He growled like a beast and gnashed his teeth. Even though I pierced his heart, he still stood there like I only gave him a slight push.

'What is he?' I asked myself.

'Even the Creepers died when I pierced their hearts; so, why doesn't he die?'

He seemed more and more like a monster to me. Either he doesn't have a heart or he is a zombie.

Unwilling to accept that I can't kill a measly monster, I tightened the grip around my spear and my fingernails drilled into my skin, letting blood flow down the spear's shaft.

The leader clutched his spear and held his other hand against his gaping wound to stop the bleeding.

His jaw dropped and he howled, "HOW DARE YOU?! I will kill you for that!"

He lifted his foot high up and above his hip. Small, yellow embers gathered at the sole of his foot and he stomped heavily onto the ground. Sun-yellow flames gushed out from his foot and shot outwards in a circle.

As the flames drew nearer, I got into a horse stance and pointed my spear towards him again.

Shortly before the ring of flame arrived before my feet, I jumped as high as I could into the leader's direction. Ignoring the burning pain on my feet, I lifted my spear higher up and threw it at the leader's throat.

The spear shrilled and sizzled through the bloodless air, parting it in two. The leader couldn't react fast enough and the spear rammed itself into his throat, spritzing blood into the air. The impaled leader fell lifeless to the ground.

With the leader being taken down, all the other riders shook their reins and galloped away, leaving their dead leader behind.

I watched on as their silhouettes left my field of view and became a speck in the horizon.

I mocking smile sneaked onto my lips and I kneed beside the leader's body.

'Let me see what we have here.'

I glided my thin fingers into his pockets and searched for something edible or water; anything of that sort would do.

But there was nothing in his pants' pockets. I slithered my fingers up his body and searched his jacket's pockets. Something big and square entered my hand.

'A water-box? An old bread?' I asked myself and drool flowed over my lips. I had to swallow my saliva and pulled out the thing from his pocket.

'A handy?'

All excitement: my smile, my heartbeat, and dimples; disappeared. A lifeless expression paved my face. All my joy was for nothing. All he had was a small and dumb phone in the middle of a desert.

'Wait. Phones have maps. I could look for a city or water on the map,' I remembered and sat on the ground, unlocking the phone.

The screen which popped up after unlocking it looked not in the least like the one I remember from normal phones.

There should have been a screen filled with app icons and such things. But the screen I saw looked more like a stats page from a game:

[Name]: Regretful Desert Blade

[Clan]: Devil Desert

[Level]: 15

[HP]: 0/150

[MP]: 0/10

[Coins]: 200

[Occupation]: Rider

'He must have been bored that he even played a game during the apocalypse.'

Thinking that he left the game open before locking the phone, I clicked on the home-button and saw multiple apps there: message, maps, profile, market, ranking, clan, …

Without further ado, I clicked on the icon called Maps and the screen changed to an aerial image of the desert, pointing to my location.

Seeing that a city was not too far away from me, my mood got better and with newly gathered motivation I stood up.

Looking at my horse that fainted from pain or even died, I swiped my glance to the leader's horse. It stood there still and waiting for instructions.

Hopping onto the shadow-black horse, I rode towards the city in hope to find food and water.