The five children circled around Wonka in the crowded Wonkavator. Charlie could see Augustus trembling and sweating furiously next to him. Wonka looked at them, overlooking the terrified Augustus.
"Hey Mr. Wonka, where are we going?" Mike demanded.
Without saying a word, Wonka pressed one of the buttons and the Wonkavator launched like a speeding bullet. Augustus covered his eyes and began to hyperventilate.
"M-Mr. W-Wonka? Can we get out of here now?" he shakily asked.
Wonka only stared at him.
"Wonka! Why did we go back here, you know how much this terrifies Augustus! You could of used, I don't know, that thing with the suds from earlier today?" Violet yelled.
"Oh, you mean the Wonkamobile? The Wonkamobile doesn't go to this room, the only way to get there is by Wonkavator..." Wonka replied, sounding offended.
"I want to go there NOW!" Veruca screeched.
"Patience is a virtue my dear girl. As a matter of fact, here we are!" he added as the Wonkavator abruptly stopped and the children all crashed into each other.
The chocolatier led the children out of the Wonkavator towards a tall steel door with a sign that read: Rock Candy Mine
"Now. This will be the final room we will be visiting today before we meet at my office. The time is slowly wasting away today. Prepare to be amazed my dear children, but do be careful, it's very dark in here. So put your hats on please..." he gently said as he handed a bright purple miner hat to each child that were branded with Wonka's signature "W".
Once all of the children placed their hats on, the group walked inside a dark, cavernous room with its only source of light being fluorescent gems and the lights from the oompa loompa's miner helmets. The oompa loompas were picking the colorful gems with various tools and placing them in wagons that were identical to the ones at Fudge Mountain.
"Mr. Wonka, my hat's too big!" Mike whined, struggling to balance his adult sized hat on his tiny head.
Wonka ignored the little cowboy and proudly told the children: "Welcome to the Rock Candy Mine, the only place in the whole world where rock candy is picked from a mine."
"Mr. Wonka? Are we going to go high again?" Augustus nervously asked, expressing no interest in eating the rock candies.
"WRONG! It's the opposite. The Rock Candy Mine goes 10,000 feet deep!" Wonka cheerfully told Augustus, who sighed in relief.
"10,000 feet deep? That's towards the center of the Earth!" Mike snapped as his hat nearly fell off his head again.
"Oh dear, the oompa loompas' drills are quite loud now, could you please speak up?" Wonka curtly replied.
Knowing that she did not win the contest, Violet completely blocked out Wonka's spiel as she frantically scanned the area to find a way to sneak out of the factory to find her father.
"Now, could you all kindly follow me to the wagons? This will be the best way to see my precious rock candy gems..." Wonka told the children as he pointed his cane towards a chain of purple wagons.
The children all hopped onto a wagon, eager to find out who the winner was and what prize they would receive. Mike hopped onto Charlie's wagon to sit on his lap again and Wonka loudly cleared his throat.
"You can't sit on his lap this time, there's plenty of space..." he sternly told Mike as he tapped the empty wagon that was directly behind Veruca.
Mike let out a heavy sigh and sat in the vacant wagon. The children noticed that each wagon had a light pink safety bar in front of them. Two oompa loompas went around the wagons to place the safety bars on each child's abdomen.
"Safety bars? I don't like this at all!" Violet snapped, smacking her gum.
Augustus quietly sat behind her in the last wagon, beginning to lick his Everlasting Gobstobber.
"Everyone fastened? GOOD! NOW ON WE GO!" Wonka yelled as he sat on the front wagon and the wagons slowly descended into a dark tunnel.
The children saw more oompa loompas drilling larger pieces of bright rock candy. The fluorescent candies illuminated the dark room.
"I want to try some rock candy!" Veruca announced.
"Maybe after the tour my dear girl..." Wonka sweetly replied.
Violet loudly grumbled, trying to block out Veruca's harsh voice and Augustus loudly licking his Everlasting Gobstopper. Charlie noticed that Wonka was unusually quiet. He started to feel nervous and wished the candyman sang his songs in foreign languages or proudly explain the behind the scenes of the candy mine.
"Why is he so quiet?" Charlie wondered out loud.
"I dunno. He's crazy and I can't wait to watch some TV back in our hotel! Hopefully I didn't miss too much!" Mike replied.
The wagons approached a fork in the tracks and seconds later, everything went dark.
"What's going on here!?" Violet angrily shouted as the carts drastically turned towards the left track. The wagons all began to speed, faster than the Wonkatania. They sharply dropped deeper into the mine.
"I don't like this." Augustus muttered, starting to feel nauseous.
The wagons sped and dropped even more. Charlie now felt terrified. Before anyone realized it, the wagons began to speed upside down. Mike tightly gripped onto the pink seatbelt as it suddenly flipped upward, causing Mike to nearly plummet towards the ground.
"HELP!" he frantically screamed, tightly gripping onto one of the wagon's edges.
Once the wagons went back onto the track, Mike fell back into his wagon, badly bruising his left knee hard onto the purple wood. The wagons went upside down and Mike nearly fell to his death once more. Multicolored lights suddenly appeared and a loud, ominous voice boomed the cavern.
"There's no earthly way of knowing...which way we are going..."
Charlie gasped in horror as the wagons sped upside down again.
"Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? YES! The danger must be growing and the miners keep on riding! AND THEY'RE CERTAINLY NOT SHOWING ANY SIGNS THAT THEY ARE SLOWING!" Wonka's loud, ominous voice echoed as maniacal laughter chimed in.
Charlie could feel his heart pound in his chest as the wagons jerked towards the right side of the track. He felt the wagons all quickly slide off the track and loudly crash into the wall.
The lights turned back on. The children found themselves in a nearly empty, metallic room without an oompa loompa or rock candy in sight. Charlie was sweating furiously and his heart still racing. He heard weak whimpering in front of him. He looked down into the smashed wagon in front of him to see Mike unevenly sprawled and the safety bar completely missing. Mike was visibly shaking and struggling to fight tears.
"Are you okay?" Charlie sheepishly asked the tiny cowboy.
Mike heavily panted.
"N-no...I n-nearly fell outta there t-three times! I nearly d-died!" he screamed as he burst into tears and gave Charlie a huge bear hug.
"It's okay Mike, we're safe..." Charlie gently coaxed.
Violet slowly sat up, looking at her surroundings. Augustus was slumped behind her, looking ashen.
"I don't feel so good..." he muttered as Violet turned back.
Moments later, Augustus had vomited directly onto Violet's blue shirt. The gum chewer bit her lip.
"That was my favorite shirt." she seethed as she clashed her teeth together.
"OW! What the-hang on! Where's my gum?!" Violet frantically screamed, completely forgetting about her vomit-stained shirt.
"It's gone! My record winning piece of gum! WHERE IS IT!?" she further yelled, frantically searching the area.
Charlie still tightly hugged Mike and gasped, realizing that Veruca and Wonka were also missing.
"Hey! Where's Veruca and Mr. Wonka?!" he yelled.
"I knew it! I knew that bastard was up to no good and the nit probably fell out and snapped her neck! We'll be next if we don't get outta here!" Violet shouted, still searching for her precious gum.
"We can't just stand here, we gotta find her!" Charlie added.
"Are you crazy? Now's the perfect chance to escape before the nutcase comes back! Let's get outta here, the cops will take care of it!" Violet snapped, anxious to flee from the factory.
She eyed a bright yellow sign that read: Test Track: No Oompa Loompas Allowed In Wagons At Any Time
"He definitely wants us dead! He put us on the test track!" she yelled.
"What's a test track?" Augustus asked as he wiped the vomit off his face with his sleeve.
"A test track is an area where a car gets tested to see if it's safe to ride or not. My dad runs a car dealership and he's told me all about 'em!" Violet explained to the boys.
The four contestants snuck back into the depths of the Rock Candy Mine and frantically called Veruca's name with no luck.
Suddenly, the children heard loud chanting from afar and a . "Oompa Loompa doopidy doo..."
Mike gasped.
"The oompa loompas! They found us!" he cried, yanking his toy gun out.
"Let's go back to the test track room!" Charlie yelped as he and the others dashed backwards, only to see even more oompa loompas slowly marching towards them.
"We're ambushed!" Mike shrieked, shooting his toy gun at the oompa loompas.
"Come on! We can just run past them! They're half your size- hey! There's a door to our left! We're free!" Violet shouted as she shoved the oompa loompas away and ran towards a small door not too far from them.
Charlie, Mike, and Violet all squeezed their way through the door but Augustus was stuck in between.
"Help!" he cried as the oompa loompas loudly chanted.
The others struggled to pull Augustus' arms as the German boy suddenly slipped.
"Oh no! I think they've got me!" he cried as the others pulled him even harder until they managed to pull Augustus away safely.
They could see purple licorice-like ropes tied around his ankles.
"What are you waiting for, RUN!" Violet screamed, hoping the door would be an exit. She was mistaken. Instead it had a long, thin stairway. As the four children ran for their lives they could see the oompa loompas charging towards them and chanting "Oompa loompa, doopidy doo..."
Mike was aggressively shooting at them with his gun.
"Mike! What are you trying to accomplish? No bullets are coming out!" Violet yelled as the chanting grew louder and angrier.
"I'm trying to beat the bad guys!" he replied, still pulling the trigger.
Once they reached to the top of the stairs, Charlie slammed the door and he, along with the others bolted towards a long hallway that he did not recognize with many doors.
"Look out for an emergency exit door and keep your eye on oompa loompas!" Charlie instructed.
They closely examined the doors which read: Caramel Lake, Marshmallow Marsh, Fizzy Lemonade Swimming Pools, Gingerbread Village, and Taffy Pulling Room.
"Great, now we'll never find our way out!" Violet whined as the chanting sounded again.
The four children fiercely ran from the swarm of angry oompa loompas and Augustus tripped over one of the ropes that was bound onto his ankles. He quickly rose and joined the others as Mike continued to "shoot" the oompa loomoas with his favorite toy. Charlie eyed a small dark room with its door wide open without an oompa loompa in sight.
"Pst! We should hide behind the door until the oompa loompas are gone!" Charlie whispered as he and the others all hid behind the thick metal door. The oompa loompas chanted louder. Charlie could feel his heart race again and Mike tightly grabbing his arm. The oompa loompas quietly walked into the dark room, not noticing the children behind the door.
"They're not here." one oompa loompa stated.
"At least they did not spill the spotty powder, that stuff is very valuable..." another added.
"Enough! Who cares about spotty powder now! We must find those children! Come on! Let's go to Dessert Island!"
Charlie looked around the dark room to see silhouettes of long tubes, which he assumed that contained the spotty powder. All of the children sat frozen in their spots until the oompa loompas left the mysterious room and disappeared in sight.
"Whew! That was a close one!" Violet sighed with relief.
"Yeah. Let's get outta here!" Mike cried as he felt someone grab him by the shoulders.
"LEMME GO!" he screamed.
The children were shocked to learn that Mike's captor was Slugworth, Wonka's arch rival.
"Slugworth? What are you doing here and can you please help us?" Charlie pleaded.
"Yeah! Why didn't you tell us that Wonka is a complete psychopath? All you said was giving you those weird candies!" Violet shouted.
"I know- I thought he was cured from his psychosis but I was sadly mistaken. I should have known..." the scarred man sadly told the children.
"I'm begging you Slugworth! Wonka's put us on a horrible mine coaster that nearly killed us and he kidnapped or killed Veruca!" Mike shakily added.
Slugworth gasped.
"Oh no- that poor girl. I was wondering where Miss Salt was. I can help you, but... on only one condition..."
Charlie and Mike exchanged looks.
"What?" Charlie asked.
"Only if you give me your Everlasting Gobstoppers..."
The four children scrummaged their pockets.
"Um. I don't have mine. I think I lost it on that coaster of death!" Violet nervously told Slugworth.
"Me neither!" Mike replied.
"I have mine, but I licked it already. Do you still want it Mr. Slugworth?" Augustus politely asked.
Slugworth smiled.
"Yes, as long as one of you has it, I will help you." he told them as he grabbed Augustus' slobbery Everlasting Gobstopper.
Charlie quickly gave his to Wonka's rival. The bespectacled man looked at the candies and smiled.
"Very good boys, very good... SEIZE THEM!"
Within seconds, another swarm of oompa loompas ambushed the children. All four were restrained by the purple ropes by one or two oompa loompas.
"You work for that nutcase, don't you?!" Violet angrily shouted.
Slugworth laughed.
"Very good Miss Beauregarde. I didn't expect you to be that smart, but it's a shame that you and those boys weren't smart enough that I tricked you in the first place. Yes, actually I'm not Slugworth, I'm James Wilkinson, Willy's most reliable worker. Take them to the main office!" Wilkinson commanded as he led the oompa loompas towards the Wonkavator.
