Salem awoke abruptly once more, suddenly thinking of Inception.
Examining his surroundings, he found himself to be in the bunker he had designed in his second world.
Looking to his left and right, he saw no Alina or Ruby, which worried him slightly. Never before had either of them awoken before him.
Getting out of the bed, he coalesced a suit around his body and walked out the door.
When he exited the room, what he saw shocked him.
The floor was streaked with blood, as if someone were cut in half and forced to crawl, the walls were spattered with chunks of flesh and brain mater, along with blood, and there were body parts missing the rest of the body.
Following the steps that led upward to the main area, he saw an even worse scene.
Not a single corpse was completely intact. Each corpse was positioned like they had been broken and thrown away like unwanted toys. Every single one of the corpses had parts if their skeletons pulled out halfway, eacg missing half their skulls, with no sign of any brain matter remaining, some had no internal organs, and not a single corpse had any eyes.
Shivering in revulsion, Salem picked his way through the bodies, doing his best to avoid touching them.
Exiting the bunker, he knelt next to the utterly destroyed corpse of Alina. All that remained intact was half of her beautiful face, frozen mid-yell.
Salem felt tears begin to form, but he dashed them away.
'She died twelve worlds ago.' He thought to himself angrily. 'You couldn't save her then, and you can't save her now.'
Pushing aside his sorrow at seeing Alina, dead once more, he trudged on towards the city.
Within the city, he did not find a single living soul. No corpses, signs of struggle, footprints, even the buildings were gone. The city was now nothing but a wall.
Continuing through the city, Salem noticed there were holes within the ground, likely from the sewage system.
Peering down one of these holes, Salem saw a pair of glowing red eyes peer back at him.
Stepping back, Salem watched in horror as it slowly dragged it's lanky, green self out of the hole.
Crouching down on all fours, it screeched at him, causing every single hole around him sprout green limbs.
Turning and fleeing, Salem attempted to summon Reaper, his nanobots, anything he could use to help.
He was unable to use any skill, unfortunately. Any skill he had previously had now vanished and left him with nothing but his strengthened body.
Although he was fast, the creatures were faster, quickly catching up to him.
Salem felt one of them grab his ankle, tripping him. It picked him up by the same ankle, positioning his head in front of its mouth.
Before it bit his head, it occured to Salem why not a single corpse had eyes or an intact skull.
Hearing the horrifying crunch, his world faded into darkness once more.