September 6th, 2018 was one of the greatest nights of my life.
My girlfriend and I headed to Lincoln Financial Field for the Eagle's season opener in the scorching heat where the weather forgot it was in September.
I got out of work early to drive through some brutal Philadelphia traffic to make it to the packed parking lot filled with tailgaters who were there since 5 am. We walked all the way to the massively crowded stadium and had to go up multiple flights of stairs just to get to our seats.
This was it. I paid a lot of money and took time off work to see a historic event in Philadelphia history. The banner would be unveiled in a coronation ceremony of the Philadelphia Eagle's first ever Super Bowl Championship in front of a national audience.
The energy and excitement were undeniable.
And then...we had to get out of our seats because of an incoming lightning storm. The game was delayed.
So after spending all that time waiting for kickoff, in came a rain delay. Suddenly, a random thought popped into my head.
"What if "The Walking Dead" happened all the sudden?" And when I say "The Walking Dead", I mean what if the zombie apocalypse suddenly began?
Obviously, for Christie and I, this would be the worst possible time for the apocalypse to happen. But it would also be the most interesting time possible. As we all know, the best zombie apocalypse stories are the ones where our heroes keep getting into the worst situations and their suffering is our entertainment.
So if the apocalypse happened during the game, here is what we would need to do:
1. Find a safe place in at the stadium that's safe from zombies. This would be extremely difficult if everyone around us was trying to find a safe location too.
2. Find a way out of the stadium. Also hard to do because we're on the second level and have to try and get past a mob of people, especially if there are zombies outside the on the stadium fences.
3. If we find a way to get out of the Linc, then we have to walk through parking lots. Maybe we could find shelter in XFinity Live, the Wells Fargo Center, or Citizens Bank Park.
4. Find a way to the parking lot and manage to get through the swarm of cars and avoid zombies just to get to my car.
5. Hope that my car works. If my car does work then we still have to make sure the parking lot is clear of zombies and abandoned cars. If it doesn't then we pretty much have to hide in a safe area for a while.
6. If we managed to drive out of the parking lot then we have to drive through the city and find a way out. Our batteries would probably die quick so we'd have to delete apps and content and try to communicate with others as much as possible. At the same time, we should conserve our phone usage.
7. Christie was dog sitting two dogs at the time so we'd have to go get the dogs.
8. Take the dogs and drive to her house to pick up her mom and her dog Emma. Hopefully, we'll be able to stockpile on gas and food.
9. Get to my house to see if my dog and family are safe from zombies.
10. Take our families and four dogs all the way to Penn State to get my sister in college
11. Finally make it to my sister at Penn State where it looks like a safe haven is there. But myself (in this scenario), jaded with long hair, baggy intense eyes, and a beard, recognize that there's something dastardly going on behind the scenes but everyone else doesn't recognize it until it's too late, all setting up for a heart-dropping season finale!
Thankfully, none of that happened and the game went as planned. Brian Dawkins and the Eagles unveiled the banner celebrating their greatest accomplishment in franchise history. The game itself was dull until they ran the Philly Philly play that took my breath away (again). And the goal line stand at the end was as heart pounding.
Fin.
Fly Eagles Fly.
