I finally was able to play the other day. I found myself on a beach. Knowing what the map looked like and having a vague plan of getting to a small town on the western side of the map, I headed along the beach to the west, towards the setting sun.
After only a short while, I found a major town. I'm almost certain it was Chernogorsk. I started winding my way into the city, but shortly found far too many zombies and no loot. I crept south until I reached the coast again and stuck to the docks. After a little while, I saw one zombie, which I foolishly shot.
Soon there were a dozen zeds screaming at me from the pavement a few feet away from my safety on the docks. I eventually put them down one by one, but by the end I had only half a clip left.
I dug through the zombie corpses to find what salvageable material I could. I found a single Markov magazine, two empty tin cans, and an empty bottle of whiskey. Feeling hoboish, I took everything and started creeping out of town.
By this time, it was fully night. I had to start throwing flares to see my way around. I kept heading west, jogging once I was away from the city and hoping I wouldn't be spotted by anything. Several times, I would hear terrible screams and I'd be forced to sprint blindly until I felt safe. At one point, I stepped over a fence into what I thought was a safe area, but found myself surrounded by zombies. I panic-fired and didn't even take down one, exhausting my last clip. I accidentally ate my last can of beans in the melee, don't ask me how. I finally started running and finally managed to charge across a shallow bay, disrupting the zombies behind me.
I wandered along the coast for a little more, finally feeling I was far enough from civilization to be safe from zombies. However, there must have been a few houses nearby, because I was soon ambushed by a zombie. However, I was saved by a wrecked boat resting just of the coast. I ran out until the water was up to my knees, and jumped in. the zombie followed and waited patiently as I tried to start up the boat, but it was in totally nonoperational condition, and out of fuel to boot. After trying everything I could to get it moving, and being totally out of ammo, I broadcast to the world my find and how to get to it (jog west from chernogorsk until you cross a bay) and threw my last three flares out to the coast, to see if that would distract the zombie.
No dice. I leapt out of the boat and started running through the surf. The zombie ran faster.
My next goal is to head to Devil's Castle and decide if it's a safe place to camp out.