Lots of good advice here. It took me a couple days to get the hang of managing zombie trains. Away from buildings run in a straight line through bushes. After you get a few bushes between you and the zeds go into a crouch and watch over your shoulder. You'll lose a few every time, but some are very tenacious. Pine trees are the best. Stand in the middle of one and they will walk right past you. If you can get your "sight" meter to 2 bars and no sounnd, almost all zeds will miss you. If you can quickly go prone under a tree or a cluster of bushes they will also miss you. Break their line of sight at any opportunity. Just spend a couiple hours practicing these tactics and life will get MUCH easier. Your first objective should always be an axe. Listed range is 1 meter but it really looks more like 2. After it's in your inventory, right click on it and "remove from toolbelt". That will put it in your primary weapon slot. IMMEDIATELY "reload" it. Practice with it. Axes are found in Farm and industrial spawns. After a while you will turn the tables and start hunting THEM. Zeds carry food, drink and bandages. You can live off them for quite a while. Someone mentioned Deer Stands. Deer stands have morphine. Soldier zeds carry morphine. ALways try and get at least a couple morphines before you commit to a long game. Your second objective should be a backpack. Stores, houses and apartment buildings are the place to find these. Once you get the hang of using the axe, searching buildings actually gets fun. I try to avoid putting anything in my starter pack. It makes swapping packs a lot faster. Once you have a bigger pack, THEN you can think about carrying a rifle of some sort. Once you have a rifle in your pack, it's easy to switch between axe and rifle. I usually just carry an axe and a 1911. The pistol is for people. Most of your hostile encounters will be with snipers so just KEEP MOVING. Most snipers I've encountered have a big gun but no idea how to use it. Most of the rest will be at pistol range. Remember, even the loudest pistol is qieter than any rifle (except for SD) and the axe is SILENT. Use an axe and all you only have to worry about is whats at the door, not whats down the street. Silence is GOLDEN.