Plastic Sea — What's Left, Page 44
By Inkroost · Published
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Transcript
High above, the colossal patchwork Garden Ship sails alone on a vast glittering sea. On its deck, a tiny ring of people surrounds one small cyan glow. One black balloon floats above it. Tohum: 'Day one.'
Image description
The colourful Garden Ship sails alone on a glittering sea, a tiny glow on its deck, under one black balloon reading Day one.
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.