Akon

So i was running through town as a fresh spawn after being KoSed by 3 guys, i found a splinting axe and thought "Oh Boy! I can kill zombies fairly easy" So a zombie comes running upto me, it took over 10 hits to kill it and i almost died from it, only one zombie (It use to take 2 hits) So my question is, in the new update yesterday were the Zombies health/endurance increased, and if so how do I kill relatively quickly?