Ellie Quin - 04 - Ellie Quin in WonderLand by Alex Scarrow Page A

turned to look back over her shoulder, grinning at Ellie like an excited toddler.
    'This place has seriously got to be the frooviest, droolest place in the whole fregging universe!'
    Actually, it
wasn't
what Ellie was thinking. She joined Jez outside. The regular, clockwork-like
cheep-cheep-cheep
of insects was a soothing sound. She wondered whether the noise was actually being created by genetically engineered insects, or was simply some ambient soundtrack being played by hidden speakers outside. Above them the projected night sky was a pleasing panorama of a full moon shining down on feathered clouds that chased each other playfully across a star-filled sky. A warm - no doubt artificially generated - breeze teased their skin and stirred the plants in the gardens below to whisper like an audience hushing themselves before a performance.
    'It
is
lovely,' Ellie said. 'And so, you know?….so
convincing
.' That felt like a stupid thing to say. What would she know if a place like this was a convincing facade or not? All she'd ever experienced was mum and dad's farm and the claustrophobic and crowded confines of New Haven and Harvest City.
    It felt real though, if you could ignore the one or two black triangles hanging in the sky. (Easier to do at night). Although, every now and then a drifting cloud seemed to vanish behind a solid black border and reappear moments later.
    'It's my considered opinion that we should stay here,' said Jez. She turned to Ellie. 'For a while, that's all I'm saying, Ellie, girl. Just for a while.'
    'I don't think we've got much of a choice anyway. We're going to have to wait for that supply shuttle.'
    'If the whole system is locked down by The Administration there's no way we're going to get through the jump point at Gateway', said Jez. There was that. Jez was right. It seemed the best course of action was to lie low for a while. Give them a few months and maybe The Administration would find someoneelse to hunt down. Weren't there enough of those Awoken terrorist types around for them to worry about, anyway?
    'This place is totally rinky-dink. I mean, imagine having a whole mini-world you can make look exactly how you want!' Jez nudged Ellie's shoulder with hers'. 'Come on, what kind of world would you make?'
    'I don't know. Maybe…'
    She looked down the slope towards the entrance that led to World Three. A world…if it could be
anything
? Perhaps some kind of arctic wilderness? Snow, lots of it. She'd loved the north polar cap on Harpers Reach. The endless glistening white of powdery snow, breath that curled out of your mouth in fleeting plumes, that pleasing muted crunch sound beneath each footstep. Or perhaps it would be a tiny desert island surrounded by coral pink sand, and a gently lapping bath-warm sea?
    Yes
.
    And
real
palm trees, not plastic ones like dad had bought at the Traders Show and stuck in their central dome. Real ones that dropped those big hairy nut things that sloshed with liquid inside.
    'Me, I'd make mine a mega trance-dance dome. Just like totally huge…with a holofloor like Dantes. Crud! I guess it could be
real lava
, couldn't it? With a plexglass floor over the top? And the sky would be that swirly green blackhole effect like the gas cloud around the baddie's base in Spacers And Racers? Then I'd just fill it with these floating dance platforms, a big fregging boom-boom system playing some Betsy and beautiful people…hundreds of beautiful people all dancing and partying.' Jez nodded with satisfaction. 'And it would be my club.
Mine
.'
    'You'd fill it with
fake
people?'
    'Yeah. Why not? Everyone that's famous on the toob. Like…' Jez proceeded to list names, only a few of whom were familiar to Ellie. Flicker actors, sopa-dram stars, ad-faces, muzos, dancers, brand-shills, sportjacks. She wondered how the heck Jez managed to keep all that frivolous crud in her head and have space for anything else.
    'You'd have to programme in their personalities and everything, Jez. I