Where are the survivors? (Project Zomboid)

I constantly hear shots from different sides, and even zombies react to these shots. At first I thought that following the horde in parallel I could find other survivors, but it feels like the zombies are stupidly moving along one synchronous straight line, and not to the point where the shots were fired from. Actually the question is where and how to find survivors? the developers kind of said that they are in the game.