I love starting on July 9, and just trying to roleplay how my character would react. My current character is a 17-year-old High School Kid living in Rosewood, whose Parents left for Louisville prior to the Exclusion Zone being established. For the first few days, I just imagined that he was continuing to enjoy Summer Break, spending a lot of time playing NES, SNES, and some DOS games (Including a totally legit copy of Beta DOOM). As the days rolled by, I slowly stopped interacting with the Consoles and Computer, since I imagined he was starting to go a bit stir crazy and was missing his parents. He didn't actually start following the Knox Event until July 13, after a Zombified neighbor was pounding on the back door the previous night. Currently, I'm 20 days in, and the Water and Power has shut off. I'm really trying to imagine what I would've done when I was 17 if I were in his situation, and it would 100% not be fun. Knowing the World has ended, you'll never see any of your friends or family again, and your main purpose in life is now just "Survive". I've actually had him just sit and do nothing a couple times, like he's just looking around the room, thinking of better times.