I personally can’t imagine anyone surviving long-term around running zombies. Even if fighting them was relatively easy, it’s statistically inevitable that sooner or later you’d get bitten. This applies to walking zombies too, but at least with them, you have the option to avoid physical altercations altogether, at least for the most part. That’s what I think most TV shows get wrong about zombies: even if there’s just one, and you could easily take it down, just don’t. It’s almost never worth the risk. In my view, the best way to survive is to avoid them as much as possible. Fighting is the last resort and should only be done in self-defence.
TWD style zombies live indefinitely and they eat humans as well as animals but this is just an instinct. Zombies don’t need food, water or shelter to survive nor do they even have a functional digestive system.
Than they are a perpetual motion machine and they can generate power for you endlessly walking on treadmills. Which is cool, but ultimately useless.
They’re fictional creatures but that’s not exactly the point of this thread.