Surviving the first week or so is crucial. The zombies aren't going to come when it's convenient for us. They'll come suddenly while you're shopping at Wal-Mart or the grocery store, while you're asleep in your bed at 3 AM, etc. You need to have your gear pre-staged and ready to go. A good backpack, with sleeping back, rubberized mat, bivy sack, warming layers, water, dehydrated food, etc. Your basic camping gear, in other words. Also take a hack saw, a hand-cranked CB radio, and some rope. You'll also need weapons. By weapons, I mean guns, mostly. A semiautomatic shotgun for close-range engagements, and a high-powered semiautomatic hunting rifle for distance engagements. You'll need probably a couple of hundred rounds for each weapon system in your pack. Surviving the initial chaos is the key, after that you can rely on your survival skills. My recommendation is to pre-select a water tower -- the kind on stilts, with a single ladder running up the leg to a platform on the top, or a small door at the bottom leading up top. No one else will probably be headed to one of these, and these things are usually pretty remote. Get to this thing, climb about 10 feet up, and cut the ladder off, so that no one can follow you up. If other survivors approach and need help, throw the rope down for them to climb up, too. There's usually a platform around the tank up top that you can sleep on in your bivy sack, surveil the area, etc. You have a huge supply of water at your disposal, and, provided you've brought along enough dehydrated food, you can survive up here for months. This should allow you to survive the initial zombie onslaught fairly easily, provided you don't encounter any bad humans who want to kill you for your supplies, water, etc. If you do, well, that's what the high-powered hunting rifle is for. I just hope you're as good a shot as I am.

Once you survive the initial assault, my recommendation is to make your way to your local fortress. All across the world these structures exist. Back before combined arms and high-powered guns, we fought hand-to-hand with brutal, hand-held weapons. You had to get up close and personal to kill your enemy, usually within arms length. Men built huge, inaccessible, thick-walled fortresses to protect themselves from other warring nations. These things still exist today, though mostly as tourist traps. Old castles, fortresses, Catholic missions out in the American West, etc. Find one, have a plan to get there, clear it from zombies, and seal up all of the entrances with several-foot-thick bricks and mortar. Survive there with aquaponics farming, some basic livestock. Most of these structures have wells within the compound. All you need to do is find it. Organize. Start conducting zombie killing raids with a handful of men to clear the area of enemy. Conduct resupply missions in force with your fellow survivors. Go to Wal-Mart for Ammo resupply, dehydrated foods, etc. Have skilled shooters mounted on the walls with hunting rifles to kill zombies at distances of 400-500 yards.

But I ramble. Key point is to have a plan to survive the initial onslaught. The rest will follow.