The Last Library on Earth

In the year 2147, knowledge was a relic of the past. After the Great Purge, governments worldwide had declared physical books a threat to “unity and progress,” burning libraries and replacing them with sterile Digital Archives—heavily censored databases curated to erase dissent, history, and imagination. Only approved texts survived: technical manuals, sanitized histories, and propaganda. But in the ruins of a forgotten city, a young librarian named Lyra was about to uncover a secret that could reignite the flame of humanity’s forgotten soul.

Chapter 1:

The Dust of Forgotten Words

Lyra’s job was to delete. As a junior curator for the Global Archive, her task was to scan and discard any physical books still found in raids. She worked in a concrete bunker beneath New Capitol City, her fingers calloused from shredding pages and her heart numb from erasing poetry, philosophy, and fairy tales. “Words are weapons,” her supervisors warned. “The past is a disease.”

But Lyra harbed a secret. At night, she’d trace the faded ink of the books she was meant to destroy, memorizing fragments of forbidden verse: “Do I dare disturb the universe?” or “The world is too much with us.” She hid these scraps beneath her mattress, clinging to the ghost of a world she’d never known.

One evening, while processing a crate of confiscated novels, she found a battered copy of Fahrenheit 451. Inside, a handwritten note fluttered to the floor:

“Seek the Athenaeum. 32°44'15"N 117°09'27"W. Trust no one.”

To be continued!