The Plastic Purge / Lagos Ch 5

The sun is strong.
The sea is calm.
Amara and Kofi stand on the beach,
watching the water.
There are a few people around,
some from the team,
all with their eyes on the robots
moving slowly through the waves.
They look like a small army.
They glide across the water,
picking up plastic, everything they find.
It's simple. It works.
Amara watches them, takes a deep breath.
She feels a strange satisfaction.
It's been a long time since they started,
but now, finally, the robots are doing their job.
The plastic piles up in their compartments,
the sea looks cleaner.
Maybe just for today,
maybe just for a moment,
but for now, it's working.
Kofi is next to her, hands in his pockets.
He's looking far off.
He never really believed they could change things.
"Tomorrow it'll be the same," he says.
"The sea will fill up again."
But even he seems a little more relaxed.
The robots are his.
He built them,
and now they're doing what they were meant to do.
They move like a team, in sync.
Each one knows its path.
Every now and then,
a robotic arm lifts,
grabs a piece of plastic,
and drops it into the bin.
It's a quiet, repeated motion.
The sea looks different, cleaner,
but Amara knows it's just the surface.
Underneath, it's all the same.
The sun is setting.
The shadows stretch along the beach.
The robots return, one by one,
like tired soldiers.
The people around them clap softly, smile.
Amara feels a warmth rising inside her,
a satisfaction she can't hide.
For now, they've done something.
It's just a day, but it's something.
The sea listened to them, at least today.
Kofi stands still.
He shakes his head,
but doesn't say anything.
Even he can't deny it worked.
All the robots are back, except Nkiru.
Amara watches it. It's still out there,
far away, moving through the waves.
It's picking up things it shouldn't.
No one is really watching it.
Only Amara.
Maybe Nkiru has found a different solution.
Or maybe not.