Chapter 13: Zombies Under the Hedge

One minute Jared Reznik was waving goodbye to Vanessa in her white Hungry Jack’s uniform then the next minute he was calling her out from under the hedge his neighbor had called her out from under just over two years ago now. That particular day had been very cold, wet and stormy when Vanessa along with her mother had been rescued by Jared and old Mrs Clusky from next door.

Tragically, this 85 year old neighbor of Jared’s had suffered a debilitating stroke several months ago and was now living out the rest of her days in a nursing home across the other side of town. Jared, Gloria and Vanessa visited the poor woman once every few weeks or so even though her mental capacity no longer allowed her the privilege of full recognition of even her closest family and friends. The trio would sit for an hour or so as Mrs Clusky slowly recounted all the great stories of her youth and the great adventures of her forbears handed down to her as sacred family lore. Each visit was exactly the same as the same stories were retold over and over again with tremendous relish and passion but Jared would not have stopped those visits even if he was paid a million dollars to do so.

Jared would not stop those visits because Mrs Clusky had been such a wonderful neighbor to Jared for many years and had been instrumental in rescuing Gloria Benson and her daughter from the murderous Blake Benson - Gloria’s husband and Vanessa’s father. The four of them had then become very good friends and had all shared some wonderful moments together over the months that followed. This was right up until recently when the old woman had taken suddenly ill and was no longer able to care for herself in her own home.

Jared and Gloria had gone to great lengths to make sure their neighbor and friend was set up and cared for properly in her new surroundings. They had also made the personal commitment to visit regularly every three or four weeks or so as their busy schedules permitted. One of those visits had been only just a few days ago which was probably why the woman was sneaking into Jared’s dreams right now.

As Jared lay sleeping in the nude on his sofa his mind was vividly repainting that scene from two years ago. He could see Mrs Clusky in her big old oilskin raincoat with her massive, old elephant gun waving around all over the place. He could see Gloria and Vanessa crawling out from under that hedge and he could also see Blake Benson speeding off in his car as he gave them all the one finger salute. His mind also began to add other elements into that dream that were pure fiction even though Jared was not quite registering that fact right now. To him it was all very real and all happening in very, lucid, real time. Those other elements involved other people crawling out from under that hedge that represented real people in his wider circle of friends, family and work colleagues. The president of Blanke Schande College, Miss Eleanor Grimes Ferguson, was one of those people as well as several other members of the BSC faculty. Jared also began seeing members of his own family, long since deceased, coming out from under that hedge at his and Mrs Clusky’s insistence.

Soon Jared’s whole front yard was populated with people from his past and present life but it was the last two people to come out that finally turned that dream into a nightmare. Jared began seeing a large unshaven man that resembled Blake Benson unfolding himself out from under that hedge then begin advancing towards him. After Blake Benson there came another person that Jared recognized immediately as Amanda Shore - his ex-girlfriend. She had disappeared out of his life in an angry rage the very same day Gloria and Vanessa had appeared. Right now, however, she too was crawling out from under that hedge in the pouring raining just behind Blake Benson and moving slowly towards Jared’s front door.

As these apparitions of Blake Benson and Amanda Shore advanced towards Jared Reznik all the others in his front yard began doing the same. Jared’s involuntary reaction was to retreat back into the safety of his own home and quickly shut the door. The closing of that door was soon followed by loud banging as the bodies pressing into it began to splinter the door into fragments. The scene in Jared’s mind resembled something from one of the many zombie movies he had seen over the years. The fear and torment this scene was creating in Jared’s dream caused Jared to cry out his wife’s name in shear and utter terror.

“GLORIA! GLORIA!” Jared shouted as loudly as he could. “GLORIA!”