Ninjedit: I do try running, then they punch me, I slow down and get violently beaten to death.
You do know that you should be running away, right? Seriously, the Quick trait is good, but even without it you're faster than a green. Duck through windows and head out the back door to lose chasers.
This. You're always faster than normal greens (and most of the specials as well); Quick and the fast running trait both make you even faster, as does wearing a skirt. This is a
survival game, after all; you won't be able to mow down a horde of greens without substantial resources/long periods of kiting and windowsitting, and by the time you can, you'll be up against much worse things. Also, skills. If you aren't going for a survivalist build, you're probably going to be hiding in a back room getting wasted and reading through every skillbook you can find for the first day or two.
In all actuality, you
need very little to survive, and should usually be able to get most of that in the grace period unless you got a really shitty spawn location.
Also, even if you've got zeds all around you, they're slow enough that you can weave between them without too many problems, as long as you haven't taken a bunch of hits already. It seems obvious, but remember your diagonal movement. Use terrain (windows, lava, fences, counters) to slow down zeds.