Plastic Sea (DE) — What's Left, Page 28
By Inkroost · Published
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Transcript
Roka steigt von der untersten Leitersprosse in den dämmrigen türkisfarbenen Bergungsraum hinunter. Tageslicht fällt durch ein Deckengitter auf eine mit Seepocken bedeckte orangefarbene Kiste auf einer nassen blauen Plane; Seetang hängt daran herunter. In der Ecke hängt eine verrostete Baggerschaufel. Roka: „Etwas, das sie hochgefischt haben …“ „… muss etwas wert sein.“
Image description
Roka steigt von einer Leiter in den dämmrigen Bergungsraum hinunter und betrachtet die mit Seepocken bedeckte orangefarbene Kiste unter einem Lichtstrahl.
About this chapter
In the dark at the bottom of the sea, something is counting. On Candyreef, a candy-coloured island of floating trash, Roka wakes to a water bag in the face from his street crew, lifts breakfast from the old woman who would have fed him anyway, and tells the kid who follows him that he doesn't owe anybody. Then the gulls lift all at once, and a Maw eats half the island. A day and a night alone at sea later, the Garden Ship fishes him out and orders him to walk its treadwheels for fish heads. Roka is nobody's slave, so he goes looking for something to steal instead, and breaks into a barnacled case dredged from the seabed. The silver dust inside climbs into his arm and says hello. It is polite. It is curious. It wants every human dead. And it has just started counting again.