The map was spread across the lid of a rusted steel drum.
The flashlight beam cut through the dimness, illuminating previous scribbles and patchwork notes from various sources. Industrial Zone No. 3 was merely the outer layer. Deeper inside, skewed slightly toward the southwest, was a circle heavily emboldened with a red pen.
The Old Factory.
No one spoke for a few seconds.
Thuong Sinh stared at that spot for a long time—not because of its distance, but because it was so empty. On this map, dangerous areas were usually densely marked: zombie nests, collapsed zones, heavy interference sectors. But this place was almost pristine white.
"It's too white," he said.
Van Thieu nodded. He turned on his communication device, tuning the frequency to a mid-level encrypted channel. The signal flickered for a beat, then stabilized.
"Team 7 reporting."
The voice of Headquarters crackled through after a slight delay, dry and concise: "Listening."
Van Thieu spoke slowly and clearly: "Confirmed large-scale anomaly. Zombies in the sector are moving with direction; this is not instinctive behavior. Multiple survival groups report the same phenomenon—different vantage points, but a matching point of convergence."
He paused for a beat, adding the most crucial detail: "It is highly probable that something exists that is drawing them in."
The other end was silent longer than usual.
"Recorded," the voice from HQ deepened. "Have you identified the location?"
Van Thieu glanced at Thuong Sinh before answering: "The old factory within the core zone of Industrial Zone No. 3. Strong interference zone, signal unstable."
"Do not approach deeply without higher-level confirmation."
"Understood," Van Thieu replied.
He cut the connection. No one asked why they were still heading there. Only a reminder not to go too deep was exchanged, as if the decision had been made long before the report was even sent.
The group left the survival settlement as the sky began to turn gray. The sun was obscured by dust clouds, casting a pale, murky light that wasn't quite day but wasn't yet night.
The road to the old factory was devoid of many zombies, which only made them more vigilant.
Lam Thanh Dao walked closer to Thuong Sinh than usual, while Thanh Dao moved beside them, her eyes closing briefly every few steps, her brow furrowing deeper each time.
"The waves ahead aren't like before," she whispered. "They aren't chaotic, but steady."
"Steady?" Van Binh asked.
"Like a rhythm," Thanh Dao replied. "Not noise, but a periodic fluctuation."
Lam Thanh Moc watched the vines beneath her feet, which trembled slightly in the wind. "That thing isn't just attracting zombies; it's affecting the entire surrounding environment."
Thuong Sinh led the way in silence. He had felt it since they were far off—a very slight pressure, not enough to cause pain, but enough to make one feel as if they were stepping into something... else.
The old factory appeared before them. Its perimeter wall was no longer intact, and the gate leaned entirely to one side. The painted letters on the sign had peeled away, leaving only two faint, unreadable characters at the end.
Inside, there were no zombie groans, no wind—only a silence so absolute it made their own footsteps sound louder than normal.
Thuong Sinh stopped at the boundary of the factory's shadow. He raised his hand, and the team halted. He spoke in a low voice:
"Entering this place... everything past this line is no longer on the familiar map."
Van Thieu tightened his backpack straps. "Maintain distance. If contact is lost for more than thirty seconds—"
"—Retreat immediately," So Sinh finished.
The group stepped through the gate.
In that exact moment, the communication device on Van Thieu's person emitted a very soft static pop and went completely dead.
"We've entered the center."
Deep within the factory, a very dim light of unknown source flashed and then vanished. It was as if something had just realized they had arrived.
Thuong Sinh slowed his pace. The concrete floor bore very old cracks, but between those cracks were fresh grinding marks, as if something was frequently dragged through here.
These weren't zombies; they couldn't leave such regular traces.
"There's a smell of heated metal, not rust."
Van Thieu signaled the formation to a complete halt. "Divide the line of sight; do not advance too deeply."
Thanh Dao closed her eyes, this time for longer. Her shoulders trembled slightly, but her voice remained steady: "It's not in one place."
The statement made the atmosphere plummet.
"Not a fixed organism?" Lam Thanh Moc asked.
"No," Thanh Dao shook her head. "The center is unfixed, like a field of influence that is moving, but very slowly."
Van Binh swallowed. "You mean it's... patrolling?"
No one answered him, but the silence itself was the answer.
From deep within the factory, a very faint clang echoed—not of metal falling, but like someone tapping. Thuong Sinh tilted his head, his gaze turning cold. "Something is testing our reactions."
Immediately after, a zombie corpse collapsed out of the hallway to the left. Its body was mutilated, its chest caved inward as if crushed by an immense force. But what made their skin crawl was that it was still moving.
There was no sign of it lunging or screaming. It only crawled slowly toward the weak light in the factory, as if pulled by an invisible string.
"This isn't a coincidence," Van Thieu whispered. "This is control."
The zombie abruptly stopped. Its head twisted at an angle impossible for a living creature, and then it turned toward Thuong Sinh's group. It wasn't looking; it was as if it were locating them. At that moment, the air pressure surged.
Thanh Dao snapped her eyes open. "It's locked onto us!"
Thuong Sinh didn't hesitate. He took a single step forward, and the aura around him instantly changed. It wasn't an explosion of power, but a sensation of sharpness so intense it made the others' scalps go numb.
The zombie suddenly convulsed violently, as if a catalyst had acted upon it. Then it exploded—not outward in a mess of flesh, but inward, its entire body crushed upon itself. Bones shattered, and blood sprayed in a perfect circle into the air.
In the middle of the mess, something fell onto the concrete—a diamond-shaped piece of black metal, glowing hot.
So Sinh peered at it from a distance, inhaling sharply. "Is that... a device?"
The air in the factory suddenly fell silent again. The pressure dropped, as if "that thing" had just realized: this group would not be easy to test.
Thuong Sinh looked into the deepest shadows of the factory and said very softly, yet the whole team heard him: "It knows we came for it."
As they drew closer to the factory's core, the communication signal grew weaker, but it didn't vanish entirely like the previous jamming zone. It felt suppressed, squeezed into a flicker. Van Thieu sent one final report to HQ, his voice concise:
"Confirmed multi-directional zombie herding phenomenon. Suspected zombie coordination center in the old factory district. Team 7 approaching to confirm nature."
The response was a single sentence: "Priority: Survival. Bring back whatever you can collect."
The link cut out.
The factory gate had collapsed halfway, the steel frame warped as if bent by something from the inside. The interior was pitch black; the light from outside seemed to be swallowed by the darkness.
Zombies stood scattered throughout the factory courtyard—a sight that terrified the others. These undead were standing perfectly still, as if they had been given an order.
Van Binh swallowed hard. "Damn, since when do they know how to stand still?"
Thuong Sinh didn't answer. He stepped forward. The moment his foot crossed the threshold of the factory gate—
Thud—!
The entire iron door behind them closed automatically. It didn't slam; it slid down slowly and heavily. The screech of metal grinding against metal echoed throughout the factory hall.
Lights within the factory flickered on.
They weren't electric lights, but faint lines of luminescence running along the walls and ceiling, like glowing veins. They spread in sections, illuminating the center of the workshop.
There, stood a massive sphere.
It couldn't be called human, but it couldn't be called a machine either. It was a body fused from metal, human vertebrae, and bundles of dark, slowly pulsating cables. It didn't stand; it was attached directly to the factory floor, as if this place were a part of its own body.
The surrounding zombies convulsed and knelt in unison.
An invisible pressure bore down on every member of the team. Van Thieu clenched his fists, sweat dripping from his brow. "Thuong Sinh... get back—"
But it was too late. The sphere moved.
An incomplete arm reached out, followed by a piercing shriek of metal. It wasn't fast, but it was enough—a strike aimed directly at Thuong Sinh's position.
No time to think.
Thuong Sinh stepped diagonally. The cloth wrapping his sword fell away. There was no complex technique, just a single, straight slash.
Sword light flashed in an instant.
Clang—!
The sound of the impact wasn't like cutting flesh, nor was it like metal. It was like striking a hard core encased in something living.
A small object was sent flying, rolling across the concrete.
The sphere jerked to a halt. All the lights in the factory flickered wildly. The surrounding zombies collapsed to the floor simultaneously, convulsing violently.
Thanh Dao screamed, "It's been interrupted!"
But in the blink of an eye, the lights in the room went out, plunging them back into darkness. An immense repulsive force exploded from the center of the workshop, throwing the entire team backward. By the time they stabilized, the sphere had retracted into the floor. The glowing veins were gone as if they had never existed.
The factory returned to darkness, leaving only the sound of heavy breathing. Thuong Sinh stood still, sword in hand. He looked down at the floor; the object that had fallen was still there.
It was a cylindrical piece of equipment, its surface covered in distorted symbols—half technology, half... something that did not belong to this era.
Van Thieu stepped forward, his voice heavy. "This thing... it doesn't belong to the zombies."
Thuong Sinh leaned down and picked it up. In that moment of contact, the device warmed up. It wasn't burning hot, but a warmth like touching an active lightbulb—as if the metal had just woken up from a long sleep. Under the dust, a few engraved lines seemed to shift position slightly; without a close look, one would think it was an illusion.
"Put it down," Van Thieu said immediately, his voice decisive.
Thuong Sinh obeyed, dropping the device onto the cement. As soon as it left his hand, its temperature plummeted, returning to a cold, inert state like a piece of scrap metal.
Thanh Dao stepped up. "Just now, when it retracted, the waves in the workshop vanished completely. It didn't fade; it was as if it was cut."
The group was silent for a few seconds.
Van Thieu stepped forward, put on his gloves, and placed the object into a signal-shielding bag. Just as he was about to speak, the fallen zombies on the floor began to show signs of movement, startling the whole team.
"Retreat!"
Van Thieu ordered. The group moved immediately, without looking back. As they left the factory, the evening light had turned a deep pink. The wind blowing through the industrial zone carried dust and the smell of rot.
They only stopped once they were outside the iron gates, looking back at the zombies slowly trickling out. They were no longer moving in unison; there was only a chaotic mess of growls, as if each was reacting purely on its own instinct.
Van Binh gasped. "They're no longer being controlled!"
No one replied.
Because they were all staring at the same sight: the zombies were scattering across the industrial zone, no longer huddling or being drawn in a single direction. Some stumbled into walls, others wandered off into the distance with no clear path.
"Let's go," Van Thieu said shortly. "Back to the safe zone."
The group did not hesitate.
They retreated along the previous route, leaving the factory behind. They were no longer being pursued, but no one dared to relax. On the way back, no one spoke; there were only the sounds of footsteps and the whistling wind.
When the safe zone gates opened, the spotlights shone directly onto the dust-covered, blood-stained team. The guards immediately tensed, quickly identifying Van Thieu's signal before opening the way.
"Scout Team 7, returning," Van Thieu identified. "Special situation, requesting a direct report."
Inside the safe zone, the atmosphere was a world away from the outside—there was light, the sound of the living, and order. They were led straight to a small meeting room on the lower level.
The metal door closed.
Van Thieu placed the communication device on the table and activated the recording mode. His voice was steady and clear:
"Confirmed. The cause of the jamming was not terrain."
"There is a strange spherical construct inside the old factory that activated briefly."
"After it was interrupted, all zombies in the area lost their coordinated behavior."
The room fell silent. Some people looked grim; others took notes on their computers.
About a dozen people were seated in the room; no one interrupted the report. Only when Van Thieu stopped did the man sitting in the center, Ly Hong Quan, speak in a low, deep voice: "So... did you manage to get anything?"
Van Thieu paused for a beat, then pulled the object from the shielding bag at his hip and set it on the table.
"We don't know what it is."
No one in the room asked further questions. The atmosphere turned somber.
Outside the walls of the safe zone, the distant moans of zombies still echoed—chaotic, irregular—and this time, no one could be sure how long they would stay that way.