As Adam hurriedly drew the second hit of the pipe an opaque tan curtain descended in the room. On the curtain was tiny angular shapes reminding him of Egyptian hieroglyphics. He could clearly see John sitting close to him but he too was covered with little geometric shapes. He noticed how John's beard seemed to move and curl. John's toothy smile took on an alarming aspect.
Quickly Adam exhaled and drew again from the pipe. That's when the overwhelming sensation hit him that the floor dropped out from under him. His stomach rose quickly and he thought he would piss his pants. He fell back into the pillows behind him as his lungs emptied and his ears filled with an incredible roaring. He felt himself excellerating. He felt a wave of fear rush upon him but he had to let go. He had to see where he was being taken. As he was experiencing this sensation he started to say "Holy Shit" out loud but instinctively caught himself, changing the negative into "Holy Smoke." and he was out.
The rocketing sound trailed off into a familiar digital sound. He was reminded of a sound from one of the Matrix movies. When Neo is traced. And when it ended in silence he had left the warehouse and his body behind.
The next thing he noticed was he seemed to be floating in outer space. His consciousness existed without his body. Then he became aware his mind was filled with the murmur of people speaking. He avoided trying to listen to any conversation and instead focused on what his mind saw. He thought of ways to describe it and every time a word came to him, his own voice would explain the futility of earth bound adjectives.
It seemed like he was looking through a hole in the sky and into the blackness of outer space. On this background of nothing were lines made up of the brightest neon colors. The single line on his left and right gave the impression he was standing in the middle of a road. The two lines converged in the distance at a large blue tower. Standing over him like an office building. But this "office building" had the wall removed and he could clearly see a number of floors inside. On each floor was a bustle of activities being conducted by these bright red cubicle shaped... robots was the word that came to him.
Were these the "machine elves" he had heard of? He also noticed on his right, the green line that was approaching the blue tower was a path carrying these red cubicle robots into the building. He could see them walking in lock step into the tower.
This he clearly saw before reentering the atmosphere of his body and opening his eyes to see John, still behind the curtain with his maniacal smile waiting to ask, "What'd you see?"
When Adam explained the image John felt cold chills because he had seen something similar. John told him he seemed to be talking to someone or something. "You kept saying 'I gotta go back'"