The Atlas of Forgotten Cities

Decades after the Red Fever pandemic erased entire cities, nature reclaims the hollowed-out husks of civilization. In this fractured world, teenage cartographer Lila Janvier navigates fluid borders and fragmented history, her charcoal and ink maps serving as elegies to what was lost. When a secretive organization known as the Archivists commissions her to chart the forbidden “forgotten zones,” Lila’s life takes a dramatic turn. These quarantined ruins hold the key to understanding the Red Fever, but are deemed too dangerous by the ruling Authority. Venturing into the ghostly silence of abandoned Minneapolis, Lila finds more than empty buildings. A half-eaten meal, a child's drawing, a fading family photograph—these are whispers of lives abruptly silenced. But amidst these poignant remnants, Lila uncovers something far more unsettling: cryptic geometric patterns etched into the decaying landscape. These aren't random markings, but a coded language hinting at a deeper, more sinister truth. In the ruins of a former hospital, she encounters Kadeem Akhtar, a haunted scavenger grappling with survivor’s guilt. Bound by a shared curiosity and a growing unease, Lila’s meticulous nature and Kadeem's survival skills forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they decipher the cryptic patterns, revealing chilling predictive algorithms forecasting environmental disasters—algorithms that suggest the Red Fever wasn't a natural pandemic, but a meticulously engineered catastrophe. Their pursuit of the truth exposes a conspiracy reaching the highest levels of the Authority, a governing body with a vested interest in keeping the past buried. Hunted by Rhys Moreau, the Authority’s ruthless enforcer, Lila and Kadeem find themselves in a desperate race against time, pursued by operatives tasked with silencing dissent. Their journey takes them through a hidden network of tunnels connecting the forgotten zones, where communities cling to hope in the shadows. Inspired by their resilience, Lila’s maps transform into symbols of resistance, incorporating local folklore and forgotten stories, reclaiming the narrative from the Authority's iron grip. But exposing the truth comes at a steep price. In a final, desperate showdown, they must choose between survival and revealing a lie that has shaped their world. The fate of memory, and the future itself, hangs in the balance.