Intro

Prisons are a rather nice place to start, for these reasons:

• Zs are super easy to kill, if you have a spear. You can abuse this as a training method for a couple of Melee levels.
• there's plenty of food in the pantry
• clean water in the basement
• tools in the workshop, and in the basement

After you clear out the zombies, you may even be able to shoot or stab some zombies outside, out of the barred windows.

Getting out

We're starting out in the canteen. There are carving knives available for your stabbing pleasure, as well as different implements (like cast iron cookware and large fire extinguishers) serving in the capacity of lockpicks. This time, I don't need lockpicks, because there's a Tough Zombie here to take care of the door.

It helps to lead the zombies away from the door, then circle back (all the while bleeding them as much as practical). Lead them so they'd pathfind over chairs and tables (this slows them down), then stab them with that carving knife. Movement is paid just after moving onto the obstacle, so the best chance would be after leading a zombie to a diagonal step onto a table or such. I got rid of two Toughs with this trajectory:

In the workshop, I can see an adjustable wrench (good for disassembling washing machines). So far no hammers, and I'm taking damage, so perhaps it's best to find a safe place for resting. Being out of stamina is very, very bad in combat - it almost halves your movement speed (+86% cost, currently), interferes with dodging, and probably something else. You can climb up fences onto single-story buildings - I've never seen a zombie climb anything.

Then you can peek down, find separated zombies, hop off the roof and take them down, if practical. Keep your retreat path to the nearest fence / rooftop access.

... anyway, this character's hands got so damaged that it couldn't wield a plank, anymore, so couldn't bash in doors, and in the end got eaten by zombies. Eh.