The Return of Pestilence Girl With October In Her Eyes
The book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, a comedy on the coming of the End Times, was also turned into a popular web series on Amazon Prime in 2019. This fan fiction take sees Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, come out of retirement centuries after she was rendered redundant in the age of penicillin
Damn, she had forgotten how much fun this was. Within months, her little pet project had gone from a small little virus of little concern, to an international pandemic. The humans were panicking in a way that Pestilence hadn’t seen since she had made the black plague. It was... refreshing, to be busy again, to be doing big work instead of spending her time making petty little one-off diseases…
It wasn’t long before she got a call. The gang wanted to meet up while she was still here. Pestilence found them all waiting for her at a truck stop in Idaho; in the absolute middle of nowhere surrounded by dying corn with a sign that said “HELL IS REAL” next to the parking lot. So much for subtle. She did have to admit, the biker thing was fun, so much faster than the old horses. She walked into the truck stop where the three of them were waiting for her. They all stood up... Famine greeted her with a hollow smile, War with a wink, and Pollution leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Death wasn’t there, he never showed up for their little meetups even in the old days.
“Pestilence, darling,” Pollution said, taking her hand as she sat down. “Lovely to see you again, it’s been far too long.”
“Yes well, there hadn’t been much need for me in a very long time. But here I am now!” She smiled at the group, and Pollution squeezed her hand. She and Pollution had tag-teamed the job during the industrial revolution. The factories that the humans were building had given Pollution a job promotion, and the bad conditions that came from them had given Pestilence the perfect place to work. They had fun together, and damn did they do their work well.
“Speaking of,” said Famine, taking a sip of his chocolate shake. “What brought you back?”
“Oh, you know how it is. I just had a Feeling that it was time for me to get back to work.”
“I understand,” said War, twirling a strand of her hair. “I played around a bit earlier this year, but decided to pull away at the last minute. I had a Feeling that something bigger was coming.” She smiled and wiggled a finger at Pestilence, “and I was right! Here you are.”
“Well, I can’t stay very long, you know how things are.” The horsemen nodded. “Speaking of which, I don’t think there have been many cases in Idaho. Well, looks like I should change that.”
The writer takes two of the principal characters of the popular sci-fi Netflix thriller — teens Eleven and Mike Wheelers — into a postapocalyptic time when a disease has wiped almost all humans off the planet. Eleven has a dog named 12. She and Mike meet for the first time, in a park (on the show, they met in the woods while Mike was looking for the missing friend at the centre of the plot)