had a near death experience in my current project zomboid run:
So, I was wanting to stock up on more food to make sure I don't run out anytime soon. I took a car and decided to go down to the nearby gas station to sort of 'double dip', filling up the gas tank and packing all the seats and trunk with snacks.
As I get there, there's a pretty sizeable horde following me, but I manage to take them all out in melee combat without a scratch. I fill up the car with gas, and then go and kill all the nearby zombies that weren't attracted by the car's engine before heading inside and taking several trips to move all the snack foods out to the car.
By the time that's done, it's gotten rather late at night and my character is getting pretty tired. Deciding that it's a bit risky to drive while so exhausted, I decide to just climb into the car, lock the doors, and sleep there.
While asleep, I hear helicopter blades (current game settings have the helicopter event set to 'sometimes' so it can come at any time). My character sleeps through this for about an hour before waking up to two zombies knocking on the window.
I go to start the car's engine. It turns over. It turns over again. It turns over a third time. Finally, it manages to start and I speed out of there. On the way out, I see something harrowing in the pre-dawn light through a very light blanket of fog: in the field across the road from the gas station, there are hundreds of zombies, not crowding up but simply shambling in the vague direction of the sounds of the helicopter shadowing me. Had I awoken a few minutes later they likely would have been on me and I would be dead.