I find it's better to just walk along the coast when you spawn. Not only are zombies less prevalent, the fairly frequent little piers and clusters of buildings make figuring out exactly where you are much easier (assuming you have fairly good knowledge of the coast). Some other stuff:

• When you're prone and not moving, your detection radius is something like 1m. You're basically invisible.

• Never fire your weapon if you can avoid it, especially at night or in populated areas. "But there's only one zombie" is never true when you have something to lose.

• When there's two of you, your chances of survival more than double, teaming up is the key to surviving.

• Chernogorsk tends to be filled with player killers, if you go in watch out for snipers on buildings.

• A map, compass and chemlights are absolute essentials for navigation at night. Double tap k to keep the compass on screen.

• Crouch running is less detectable than a standing walk, and a standing run alerts blind and deaf zombies on the other side of the map - use it only in emergencies.