The teens and adults who remained didn't expect the first rider of the apocalypse to gallop around the world on a literal white horse. He came with the sound of thunder, dark clouds and fierce winds trailing in his wake. The events that followed brought civilization to its knees. The first rider became known as the conqueror, and that's what he did with his victor's crown and bow of destruction. He struck the strongest the world had to offer... the militaries of the earth, all their soldiers, and all their vehicles of war.

As he rode, he charged forward with a battle cry. "I am the first of the four horsemen. After me three more shall come, and who will be able to stand? Who will be found worthy to remain at the end of all things?"

The world's militaries fired everything they had, but their bullets and missiles had no effect on him, unable to impede his progress or make a dent in his armor. The men and women of war soon realized, albeit too late, that the rider and his white horse was a supernatural warrior on a ghostly steed. They never had a chance. The conqueror had a mission, and nothing could stop him.

He drew back his bow and obliterated tanks and helicopters and fighter jets. The planes fell from the sky, crashed and burned. The arrows blasted through steel-plating and exploded, killing those at the controls. The horse's hooves charged a zigzagging path from north to south on a blazing wave of destruction that carried the rider from the east to west coast of one continent after another.

That was just his first ride around the world. For four months, he conquered man, woman, and machine, army after army. Land, air, and sea, he destroyed all until nations were defenseless.

But his final gallops wreaked the worst havoc of all. On the final days of his four-month ride, he destroyed the last bastions of law and order. Of those who had remained after the innocents were taken, he destroyed all police and all their vehicles, all first responders, firefighters and their trucks, EMTs and their ambulances. Every layer of justice and security for all civilizations were broken down and put to an end.

One rider. One horse. Conquered all, leaving the average person exposed to lawlessness like never before.

That's when the next horseman appeared, and took what peace was left in the Earth, and put murder in the hearts of the people who remained.

~~~

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