We thought the world was done for when we heard that the first of the Four Horsemen had been seen.
We were right, but not the way we thought.
See, it turns out that they’re pretty picky about who gets to destroy the world. When the aliens came and bombed us into a wasteland, the Horsemen appeared.
War was first, even though the stories say it’s supposed to be Pestilence who leads the Horsemen out.
No one really agrees what War looks like. Sometimes she’s a beautiful woman that men (and women) will kill to possess. Other times he’s a tall, strong man in heavy armor. Their clothes are always red. It hides the blood that drips off their hands.
War swept through the enemy forces and rallied the tattered groups of humans that were left. Humans like to fight, after all, and now we had someone to lead us.
Pestilence was next. Unlike War, he’s always male and always looks sick. We don’t see much of him, because he’s a walking bioweapon and most humans can’t be near him.
He goes after the big hive-ships, when they land. One little stroll through the ranks and they die of terrible disease.
He always wears white, but it’s a strange white that makes you nauseous just to look at it. The color of hospital walls and poison mushrooms.
Famine is male too. We think, anyway. He is very very thin and looks fragile. People are always trying to feed him, but it doesn’t help much, even if he thanks them for the worry.
See, Famine is also good at destruction. He sucks the life out of everything he touches to feed his endless hunger. Turns out he can do batteries and energy fields.
The aliens don’t know how to stop him. He just eats whatever they throw at him. He and Pestilence run together because he can’t get sick, and he can get Pestilence where the disease-walker can do his scary work. Sometimes we see them at a far distance, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder, just talking to each other. It’s the only time either of them ever smile.
Famine always wears black. It almost hides how deathly thin he is.
Death was the last to appear. Like War, her form changes, but she’s always female and usually looks like someone you know, who died,
She’s the most dangerous of all of them. Wherever she goes, shadowy must follows and if it touches you, you’re dead. Just gone with no chance to fight. When she’s at peace, it lingers at the edges of the room and shies away from life. When she walks with War… mostly we try not to think about what will happen when Death comes for us.
When the aliens ran for our last few cities, Death was waiting. It was like she didn’t even see them. She just walked through their ranks and left bodies in her wake. The more they ran at her, the more died.
No survivors. That’s how Death operates. She always wears soft misty fabrics. We don’t really agree about what color it is. Just ‘pale’. The Pale Horse.
She also spends a lot of time in the hospitals. She sings the injured to sleep. We see her with dying children most often. She takes their pain and lets them die in peace. Some of the doctors call her Mercy, now, and it makes her smile just a little.
It’s rare for all four to get together. I only saw it once. When a big battle cruiser landed and millions of soldiers poured out like they would never end. Their full invasion force.
Famine went first. Their energy weapons focused on him. That was a mistake, because Pestilence walked next to him and spread his sickness in a cloud of toxic yellow that left soldiers choking on their own blood.
War hit them like a thunderbolt after that. In the form of a fair young man in blood-colored armor. He cut a swath through them. Screams echo around him like music. It’s appropriate. He looks like he’s dancing, with a sword in one hand and a gun in the other.
Death is last, like she always is. She walks as a regal old woman with bare feet and a velvety dress trailing behind her. It blends into the night-colored fog in her wake.
There are no screams when she passes. Only silence as the soldiers fall dead and she walks unstoppably onward. When her mist meets with Pestilence’s, they throw lightning bolts that leap from body to body, only to thicken the blazing storm that boils up to consume the ships above.
The Four Horsemen have come, and they have brought doom with them.
In truth, the aliens didn’t stand a chance.