Vampire Hunter: Corey Crowgarden's guide to killing vampires for fun and profit.

Lesson 6 Part 1

"You muther fucker," Bobby said as he banged his knees down hard. His knees are not sore, much to his surprise, and he puts his hands down in front of him to find, soft, sandy earth.
His eyes are taking their time adjusting to the darkness. He hears a crackling sound, like the ice on a pond breaking.
"I'm sorry," said Tim. "Sometimes it's easier before your logic breaks the path."
"I'll pretend I know what that means... Where are we?"
"Nowhere." Tim said and stepped around Bobby. Crystal stuck out her hand to help Bobby up, but he waved her off.
"Can you do this?" Bobby asked standing up and following behind.
"Honestly?" Tim said striding forward, "I don't know."
"I'm going to need to call Dennis when we get back," Crystal said.
"You haven't already?" Tim said.
"Who's Dennis?" Bobby asked as the trotted along behind them in single file.
"Dennis is our boss.. the publisher," Tim said. "We are almost there."
Bobby looked around him, bewildered. It seemed like walking through sand with the darkest and quietest of pitch black skies above them.
"Are we in a tunnel?" Bobby asked.
"Sort of," Tim said, "a tunnel of time. It's difficult to explain in geometric terms, Bob."
There were a few more strides and then Tim stopped.
"Okay Bob, remember the mirror in the pump house? On the back of the bathroom door at the bottom of the ladder?"
"Kinda," Bobby said.
"We are on the other side of that mirror. I'm going to trace the symbol using your finger like before, but when I say 'GO' I will need you to step forward. It might help to close your eyes. I promise not to push unless you get stuck... Ready?"
"Sure," Bobby replied.
Bobby let Tim control his index, like before except Tim gave him a GENTLE shove as he said "Go!"
At first, with his eyes closed, Bobby felt like he was moving forward like he was in water with a gentle current pushing against him.
Then he opened his eyes, which was a mistake. With his ears back in the silence of the nowhere and his eyes in the basement bathroom he felt his momentum slow. He started to panic as he felt like he was going to get trapped in the in between. It was like bubble stretching. He thought of the movies from Grade 12 health class, the birthing of a child, the bursting of the placenta. He felt himself panicking and then felt hands on his back, shoving him forward.
Then he was through.
He stepped forward to give whoever was behind him, he assumed it was Tim, room to enter. The smell of the basement dust tickled his nose, tempting a sneeze. As he opened his eyes he saw the poorly lit bathroom. To his right was a bright white porcelain sink and he grabbed the edge as he felt a little dizzy.
He stepped forward to give whoever was pushing him room to enter. He glanced in the small mirror above the sink and and saw Crystal's hands in a fist around bunches of his shirt just below his shoulder blades.
Bobby looked around the room before he could see her emerge from the mirror.
The room was tiny. A shower on his left and a battered old 1970's sink and American Standard toilet, it would be cramped with two people in it.. let alone three.
"Make some room," Crystal said.
Bobby stepped into the shower and Crystal shuffled down in front of the toilet. The musty odour of the shower made his eyes water as Tim casually stepped through the mirror as though he had done this a thousand times before.
Maybe he had.
"You feeling all right Bob?" Tim asked.
Bobby's stomach was a bit queasy and his eyes were still stinging from the odour.
"I'm okay... not great, but okay."
"Sometimes it takes a moment to adjust from the nowhere. Usually it's your sense of smell, or your hearing. Especially if there is a loud sound or strong odour," Tim said.
They waited for a moment, mostly for Bobby to get sorted out and then entered the apartment below the pump house.
"Can I turn my phone back on?" Bobby asked.
"Sure," Tim said, "the reception is pretty lousy down here though." He tuned to his right to head down the hallway. Crystal turned left and entered a darkened room.
"I'm just going to grab the laptop," she said.
Bobby followed Tim down the dark hallway. "So, do you think you can pull this off?"
"In all honesty? I'm not sure. I mean I have done things kinda similar to this.. but this is much BIGGER." He pulled a penlight from his shirt pocket and waved it around the room. 
"Why don't we just turn on the lights?" Bobby asked, but when he reached out for the switch Tim covered it.
"I'm not sure if we're alone," Tim said.
"Crystal went the other way, to get her laptop." Bobby replied.
"We should be okay, I locked the trapdoor. Any one down here would have to have busted in. I don't know what kind of charge is on the battery for the bunker though. Once we check the door we can relax."
"For a while," Bobby laughed.
"For a change.." Tim chuckled back.
The latch was secure.
Tim hit the switch at the bottom of the ladder from the entrance and they could hear the hum of electricity in the bunker.
"My grandfather was betting on a nuclear war," Tim said. "I've been playing around down here since I was a kid."
"So.. what did you mean this is 'bigger'" Bobby asked as he gestured towards the fridge.
"Sure.. grab me a Pepsi too," Tim said and they took a seat around the dining room table. It wasn't particularly sturdy but as a some assembly required table with folding chairs went it was serviceable.
"I mean.. I have done it with animals and insects. Things with a relatively short life span and a not particularly complex consciousness but.. a vampire?"
"I don't get it. What's the big difference?" Bobby said, then sipped on his Pepsi.
"It's a HUGE difference," Tim replied after a swig of his own. "Think of a consciousness like an app. Small app, easy to handle, easy to transfer. Bigger app, an older, more complex app longer to transfer.."
"Takes more space, more resources to process.." Bobby said.
"Exactly, the only difference is I'M the CPU moving it to a new storage media..." Tim said.
Bobby thought for a moment.. "Could you use, I don't know.. my consciousness as a buffer file?"
"Hmm.. interesting idea," Tim replied.
"And .. to stretch this metaphor even further .. how do you determine if your receiver has enough ROM?" Bobby asked.
"I don't know," Tim admitted. "If we do this on Mrs. Crowgarden we might not be able to restart her body and return the consciousness back to her body."
"Well, at least we aren't trying to resuscitate the other one." Bobby said.
"The thing is.. if we are going to do this twice, whoever we try it on first is going to be the Guinea Pig for the second attempt, and that attempt is more likely to be successful.  The question becomes which one of those candidates do we want to have the better chance of success? Lord What's it or Mrs. Crowgarden?" Tim said as he went to the cupboard and pulled out two large empty glasses, gesturing to Bobby.
"I don't even know what the plan is for Lord What's it. I mean, sure yank the consciousness out of the dead body and then destroy the dead body?"  Bobby nodded at the idea of a glass.
Tim went to a small freezer and chipped out some ice cubes putting them in each glass.
"We might not even have to destroy it," Tim said, his Pepsi now hissing and foaming over the ice in the glass. "Depending on how long she has been a vampire, her consciousness might be all that's holding her body together."
"I hadn't thought of that," Bobby said as he poured his own Pepsi over the ice.
"Have you ever been invited to 'bowling night', Bob?" Tim asked.
"Usually Carrie and I have to pick people up. Why? Have you?"
"Not with Corey's crew, but ya, as Greyson with a different group. It's a messy gig. I can see why Corey wants to keep his daughter out of it and keep you close to protect her."
"The question is.. who goes bowling first.. Lord What's it or Mrs. Crowgarden?" Bobby said.
"And who gets to decide," Tim added and then took a long slow drink.