Total Drama Ocean Cruise
Chapter XXI: The Chocolate Factory
Written by The Firebending Frog
"I think you know why you're here… Again," Chris sighed with a quick turn in his captain's chair. He was done up in his fanciest sailing garb and held an air of disappointment to his voice. "I think we'll have to make your punishment much more severe this time…"
"You don't mean elimination," Chef gasped from his position at the wheel.
"Of course not," Chris laughed with a quick wave of his hand and looking at the player before him who had some chocolate smeared on her face and a guilty look in her eyes. "I'll just make her do my laundry!"
"SERIOUSLY?!" Yvonne exclaimed before a foul smelling hamper full of used socks, soiled shirts, and at least eight pairs of pants was shoved in her general direction.
"And that's only from today," Chef chuckled before sliding more hampers at Yvonne. She grew an exasperated look on her face and glanced at Chris with despair. He just hardened his frown in response.
"Do we need to go over the minibar discussion again?" Chris demanded while smacking his left hand into his palm. "Or do you have that memorized by now?"
"Memorized," Yvonne sighed while gripping the first laundry hamper and hoisting it upwards. She then turned towards the door and began to waddle towards it with her heavy load in hand. As she moved a bar of chocolate came dislodged from her pant leg and clattered the floor. She froze in place and glanced backwards to see Chris' enraged face. Seconds later she was rushing out the door with Chris shouting after her.
"LAVANDER SHEETS! I LIKE LAVANDER SHEETS!"
Yvonne sighed as the washing machine began to run, it tumbled clothes every which way and she stared blankly into the shifting waters while a tempting taste returned to her tongue. It rushed over her taste buds and pulled at her will, begging her to indulge in the very same desire that had landed her in the laundry room in the first place. Apparently dozens of jeans, hundreds of socks, and heaps of undergarments weren't enough to make her think twice, as the second that urge hit she didn't even resist it.
Her hand slunk into her pocket where a solitary bar of that delicious Norfield chocolate sat waiting to be devoured. The last one she'd have until she was allowed to clean rooms again. She probably should have kept it for later that evening but it was unwrapped and bitten into the moment it was in the open. The taste washed over her mouth and within seconds she took another bite, then another, and then the entire thing was in her mouth. Once she was done she was practically panting for more, something that didn't go unnoticed.
"Did you even taste that contraband?" Wilma's voice demanded so suddenly that Yvonne whirled around in panic and took a reflexive fighting stance from her Black Hole Brigade training. Wilma was lounged on a counter with a pile of folded socks next to her, almost like she'd been there for quite some time and was only now realizing she had company.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Yvonne replied before the candy wrapper slipped from her fingers and fluttered the ground. She quickly pursed her lips and planted a foot squarely on it before dragging it behind her other leg in embarrassment.
"Let me guess, cookies and cream bar?" Wilma questioned.
"No…" Yvonne trailed.
"Is it those mini packages of cookies that have like twelve in them?" Wilma guessed again.
"No…" Yvonne sighed before lifting her foot and revealing the wrapper to her former teammate. Wilma instantly snorted in laughter while Yvonne frowned and watched her overreact. She quickly crossed her arms and gazed at Wilma with a frown. The other girl kept laughing for a few seconds before wiping a tear from her eye and switching into stifled laughter.
"I'm sorry, it's just that Norfield chocolate is disgusting," Wilma chuckled while sliding off the bench she'd been seated on. "Their ingredient label is so long, probably filled with all sorts of nasty chemicals meant to cause addictions."
"That's just one of those dumb conspiracies people who don't like big business make up," Yvonne replied in a matter of fact tone.
"But, I've seen how you eat," Wilma responded while picking up the wrapper. "This is the kind of stuff you normally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole."
"As if you know everything about me," Yvonne replied with a quick turn away from Wilma.
"Oh I'm great at reading people," Wilma replied in a proud tone. "I can tell exactly what a person is like from only the smallest of interactions."
"Sure, sure, whatever," Yvonne replied as she picked up a load of Chris' pants and began stuffing them into the washer. They had to be washed once inside out and then again right side out so he got maximum cleanliness of on both sides.
"Well, you keep doing chores that clearly have nothing to do with your strange addiction to this chocolate brand while I go meet my boyfriend up in first class," Wilma announced while marching towards the door.
"We're not allowed up there," Yvonne replied with a quick turn of her head.
"As if anyone cares!" Wilma laughed before walking out of the room with a smirk on her face.
Confessional
"If you ask me there's something really fishy about manufactured foods," Wilma admits while leaning on the confessional table and poking one of the various souvenirs hung on the wall. "I hate to be that conspiracy theorist but I tend to find people get hooked on junk food easier than fruit or home cooked meats. All that food has its chemical makeup toyed with until it's irresistible to our brains. Yvonne's got a classic case of this, except I smell something fishy, and it isn't just the chocolate."
After leaving Yvonne, Wilma made her way up to the first class cabin with her hands pocketed and her shirt untucked. She opened the door to the pristine cabin and a few glances were sent her way from the dominating force that was The Nasty Narwhal. Most of them must have assumed she was there to unclog a toilet or something, because they all resumed their activities after a single look. This gave Wilma a chance to snag a doughnut off the table before walking down the hallway.
She came to a halt four doors down and kicked the door in without much concern over damages. The occupant gave a surprised yelp while she walked in and kicked the door shut behind her.
"Tell me you tried these doughnuts," Wilma exclaimed with a full mouth while Trevor sprang to his feet in a mixture of shock and outrage.
"What are you doing here?!" he demanded.
"I was doing laundry but I have half an hour to kill before the next load ends," Wilma shrugged while the gears in Trevor's head began to spin.
"It takes fifteen minutes to get from the laundry room to this one!" Trevor exclaimed as Wilma brushed past him and leapt onto his bed with her shoes on.
"I do double loads, no one will even notice I was gone by the end," Wilma snickered while Trevor's eye twitched. Laundry did not work when oven logic was applied to it, she was getting dirt and frosting on his bed, and she was simply there during work hours. If Chris caught her they'd both be in big trouble. He tried to think back to the logic Olga had applied to their rather opposite personalities and how they could cooperate, but finding a compromise between them at that moment was like finding a middle ground between sense and nonsense.
"Get off my bed Wilma," Trevor ordered with a cross of his arms.
"Who died and made you captain?" Wilma demanded in return.
"Oh for crying out loud, you're acting like a child again!" Trevor shouted.
"What do you mean again?!" Wilma growled with a swing of her legs over the edge of the bed and a stalk towards Trevor with a finger drawn and pointed. Trevor seemed unfazed by her threatening air, a motion that annoyed her a lot more than it should have. Most people burst into apologetics the second she put on anything resembling a threatening tone, but Trevor was steadfast and rigid. She was suddenly narrowing her eyes and realizing that Trevor hadn't talked much in their many meetings, failing to disclose much about his personal life and instead sitting near her in sweaty silence.
"Oh forget what Olga said," Trevor growled before planting his hands on his hips and staring Wilma right in the eye. "I'm sick of you skipping out on work and dragging me into your rule breaking. One of these days Chris will catch you, and when he does he'll probably lump me in with your punishment."
"Oh you think I'm going to get in trouble just because of a little fun?!" Wilma shouted back before the two of them burst into a loud bout of arguing that could be heard throughout the first class cabin. The main reason for their argument was pretty clear, Wilma broke the rules and Trevor upkept them. They were like an officer dating a criminal, it just wasn't panning out well. Everything was coming spilling out, their gripes about the other, their distaste for how the other lived, and how they were absolutely terrible for one another.
Wilma kept calling Trevor lame and Trevor kept insisting that Wilma was going to get hurt by every single little thing she tried to have fun with. They barked, bickered, and after a while Wilma simply stormed out of the room with a look of absolute rage on her face. When Elsa asked what Wilma was doing in first class she was grabbed by the shoulder and thrown aside by a quick motion. Trevor was having a different emotional reaction, one that involved crying on his bed and locking his door so no one could come in. Numerous people exchanged looks after the entire fight ended and only one thought permeated their collective consciousness, the two had broken up.
The S.S McLean pulled into port just a little past noon and the contestants onboard were quickly loaded into a bus and treated with a drive through an idyllic northern European countryside. Tiny towns, stone structures lying about, and endless farmer's fields bordered the miniscule European roads. None of these beautiful little locations were their destination though, they instead skipped past all of them and made their way towards a giant factory looming over the countryside. Huge steam stacks billowed clouds of piping hot moisture into the sky while smaller facilities were littered around the main building.
Advertisements listed it as a chocolate factory and billboards contained happy imagery that contrasted with the actual building to an insane degree. The closer they got the more certain players got that they were about to visit it, a thought that proved itself to be correct when the gates of the factory opened for them and their tour bus was ushered into a parking lot that had a surprising lack of vehicles in it. It either meant the workers at the factory were slaves or they just commuted to work via bus. They were quickly parked and disembarking the bus while a giant Norfield logo loomed over them like a medieval castle does to a small town.
"Welcome Total Drama contestants," A woman in a suit greeted them the second they were off the bus. She was dressed in an iron gray suit with steel coloured hair above it tied in such a tight bun it looked almost painful. The small glasses and plain look on her face indicated she probably wasn't a woman who spent her weekends in a club. "I'd like to welcome you to The Norfield Chocolate Factory, you're about to be treated to a tour of it, but pay attention because things you learn today may very well help you win immunity."
"Great, learning," Liam drawled in the most sarcastic tone he could muster
"If you'll follow me inside," The woman announced as two large doors were pulled open revealing a very boring interior.
Instead of seeing the actual factory they were greeted with a security desk containing a woman with red hair, a hall with a bunch of rooms in it, and multiple pictures of past CEOs. Wilma caught sight of these pictures and quickly nudged Yvonne with a laugh.
"Guess this factory is evil, they're cloning their CEO," Wilma snickered with a point at the portraits. All five previous CEOS had the same scowl, professional looking attitude, and features as the woman giving them a tour.
"It's just strong genes," Yvonne replied while slapping Wilma's hand away from her shoulder. "Most of the women on my dad's side look like sisters despite being spread across three generations."
"I'm gonna stick with evil," Wilma responded with a smirk that Yvonne refused to respond to.
The next area they entered contained the factory, but all the actual mixing vats and melting pots were separated from the tour by a large panel of glass. People walked around in body covering scrubs to prevent contamination and wore goggles, head coverings, and in some rooms breathing masks. Their tour guide led them through the area describing the mixing process and claiming several safety statistics in the most rehearsed way possible. She didn't stop to answer questions, didn't let them gaze into the rooms very long, and seemed more concerned about mugging to the camera than actually engaging the players she was leading through the facility.
The area smelled wonderful, though that didn't stop Wilma's conspiring. The chocolate smelled too good, almost like it had to have something added to it in order to get that addictive taste it was known for. She grinned at Yvonne and her former teammate glared back at her, not even wanting to humour Wilma evil chocolate factory conspiracy. Wilma however, was not in the mood to simply coast along in the terrible tour.
"WHAT'S THE SECRET INGREDIENT TO NORFIELD CHOCOLATE?!" Wilma shouted over her rivals in the contest. This scream seemed to get the attention of their tour guide better than any raised hand ever could.
"The secret to our chocolate bar is the selection of wholesome, handpicked ingredients from environmentally sustainable farms. We only use the best here at The Norfield Chocolate Company," the guide explained in the most telegraphed tone possible. Unfortunately for her, Wilma shouting a question had altered everyone else's tactics and they'd begun shouting questions while Wilma leaned back chuckling and motioned at a nearby Keep Out sign hanging on a door.
"They're probably flavouring it with cow urine or something," Wilma laughed with a lean on the railing.
"Did you hear anything that woman just said?" Yvonne demanded with a cross of her arms.
"Yeah, she's up to something. Or perhaps she's covering something up…" Wilma replied with a coy grin.
"Well, there's no way to prove it so I'm just going to follow her word," Yvonne announced with a cross of her arms and a close of her eyes. She opened those eyes when she heard a rattling coming from the door and nearly fainted in shock. The door gave a click and Wilma had it open, having picked the lock and broken into the room. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"You think this factory is innocent, here's your chance to prove it," Wilma replied with a point towards Yvonne.
"We could get in serious trouble for this," Yvonne shouted in a whisper.
"I know, right?!" Wilma giggled in excitement before pushing the door open and stepping in. Yvonne bit her lip for about three seconds before following Wilma into the room. The door was about to shut behind them when a foot caught the doorframe. Trevor glanced back at the tour before he let out a deep sigh and followed them.
Confessional
"I did it to stop them from getting arrested, nothing more, and definitely not because I felt bad about how things with Wilma went down," Trevor announced while refusing to make eye contact with the camera.
The door led to a small scaffold looming over the factory floor, conveyor belts ran from machines with completed chocolate bars on them, fully wrapped and being collected and boxed into large crates that were ready for shipping. Factory workers in full scrubs wandered about the floor, keeping an eye on the production line and operating forklifts to carry the finished crates deeper into the warehouse. It looked sanitary and clean to Yvonne so she smirked at Wilma knowingly before Trevor's shadow loomed over both of them.
Wilma's reflexes kicked in and she whirled and delivered a hard punch right into Trevor's gut. He cringed in pain, fell to his knees and stifled a cry of pain. Both girls blinked at him before exchanging a confused glance. Wilma didn't wait for Trevor to explain himself though, she quickly rose to her full height and planted a hand on her hip before speaking in a tone just loud enough to be heard over the noise of the factory.
"What are you doing here?" Wilma demanded with a snide tone to her voice.
"Making sure you don't get arrested for trespassing," Trevor retorted with a glare up at Wilma.
"We're just looking around," Wilma replied with a wave of her hand before slinging her arm around Yvonne's shoulders and steering her towards the factory floor. Trevor followed with a hand clutched over his gut and he thankfully caught up with the two girls just in time to grab the backs of their shirts and pull them behind a crate. Had he been two seconds late the nearest factory worker would have turned towards them and given a shout of alarm.
Wilma didn't show Trevor any gratefulness and instead shook him off and approached the conveyor belt with Yvonne. Fully packaged Norfield chocolate bars flowed down the belt and each and every one looked identical to the ones found in stores, the only difference being the words were written in Japanese instead of English. The crates collecting them were bound for Japan and the controls on the printing press making the wrappers signaled there were probably other templates saved within the machine. They could produce every Norfield chocolate bar right there in that factory without the need to establish any more.
"Isn't it a little suspicious that they keep all their world production within this one facility?" Wilma demanded with a point at the bars flowing past them.
"Isn't land like, ridiculously expensive?" Yvonne asked while her fingers began swiping chocolate bars from the belt. Trevor instantly slapped her hand and began putting them back, but within seconds the trio of players were under the belt and hiding from the factory workers doing their rounds.
"If we keep doing this your way we're going to get caught," Trevor muttered before ducking out of their hiding place and sneaking along the wall to a supply closet. He opened it and found precisely what he was looking for. He gave a signal and the two girls rushed from hiding to follow him, avoiding a camera as they went. They eventually came upon the closet and found themselves face to face with spare factory uniforms. Scrubs, rubber gloves, and goggles. Everything had to be covered or they could risk contamination, the good news was that these outfits also hid every single feature the group sported save the skin around the mouth, not that this one fact would be bothersome, there was bound to be at least one person working there that they at least slightly resembled based on that one tiny patch of skin.
"Let's go, we're breaking so many laws right now," Trevor ordered the second they were disguised. They would be able to sneak back up to the ramp and rejoin the tour group without any suspicion being raised.
"Do whatever you want," Wilma muttered before she quickly followed the machines past the packaging plant to where the bars were entering the machines. Doors separated this area from the next and at least three had to be entered to get from one to the other. Each door opened increased the smell of chocolate until they entered the floor where molten chocolate was being poured into moulds and cooled into shape. Employees were busy sweeping out broken and insufficient bars from the line and dumping them into a cart labelled Melting. Another batch of employees was replacing a faulty mould on another machine while a few more simply cleaned things. Once again nothing nefarious reared its head and the group was simply treated to another step in the chocolate making process. In all honesty it was more fascinating than it was worrisome.
"Nothing evil's afoot here," Yvonne announced as the trio walked across the facility floor. Thanks to the scrubs no one gave them a second look, something Trevor was grateful for. He could picture security flooding into the room at any second and catching them in the act. He couldn't have a criminal record, he just couldn't. Maybe Wilma was fine living a life of crime but he couldn't handle it, he was about three seconds away from turning himself over.
Thankfully for Trevor a way to escape the madness that was unfolding appeared. A door at the opposite end of the room opened and out stepped the tour group. Yvonne quickly dove behind a mould and Wilma shoved Trevor after her before leaping behind it herself. All three of them peered from behind the moulds as the tour walked past. The guide gave off a boring spiel about the factory and kept mentioning how their chocolate used non GMO ingredients and fair trade sugar. Wilma thought it was just sickeningly telegraphed, only being said because either the opposite was true or they were simply skirting the line.
The group was past remarkably fast and camera crews followed at a quick pace after the teams. They were the real audience, Wilma knew this for a fact. The guide kept looking over the contestant's heads and staring directly into the lifeless eyes of the cameras before saying her rehearsed lines. In fact, Wilma was certain this lady was just a hired actress who happened to look like the CEO when the real suits in charge were bent on making as much capital as possible.
"Well, since nothing evil is going on in here I suggest we rejoin the group," Trevor announced with a point towards the passing tour group.
"No one will know if we go look at where the chocolate is mixed," Wilma retorted.
"We're literally on camera right now!" Trevor announced with a point at the cameraman watching them.
"Nah, Vinnie's cool," Wilma responded with a wave. This wave was returned by a hairy arm suddenly popping into frame and waving back. Trevor stared at the camera for a few seconds with disgust written on his face before Wilma was off again, sneaking past the tour group and approaching the wall that molten chocolate seemed to be pouring out of. She wasn't going to stop and Trevor could have easily just ditched her and returned to the tour group with no one being any wiser. But with a sigh he scurried after the two girls and followed them to another set of doors that had been entered by the tour. Wilma caught the closing door with her foot and let Yvonne in before letting it close. Trevor managed to snag it before it could slam entirely and he tugged it open with a small grunt. Wilma glanced back at him for a second before pursing her lips and hurrying along the hallway after Yvonne again.
The small hallway opened up to yet another room full of factory workers who were busy watching machines mix chocolate in gargantuan vats. Warning labels were everywhere and railing separated them from more railing, all in order to prevent anyone from falling into the molten cocoa. It smelled amazing, that was the biggest takeaway from the hot and humid room filled with vents and loud machinery.
Timers counted down, supervisors watched their underlings dip long rods into the chocolate, and there was even a spare vat where badly moulded chocolate bars were being dumped and repurposed. The group even got to see a solitary vat being filled with various ingredients, a brand new batch of chocolate that had liquids and sugars dumped into it. It was actually a disgusting amount of sugar, and a lot of milk. Everything was dumped in via hoses and large overhead machinery that poured gallons upon gallons of liquid into the mixing pot where giant turbines sat, ready to mix together a new batch of Norfield chocolate.
"Milk, Cocoa, a lot of raw sugar. Why this seems very normal," Yvonne announced as she watched vanilla be dumped into the vat by the litre.
"What's that thing then?" Wilma demanded with a point at a single sprayer making its way to the rapidly filling vat. All the other ingredients stopped pouring but that sprayer only began at that moment. A sudden gush of liquid rocketed out of the nozzle and a sickeningly good scent filled the air, one that made every taste bud present in the room begin salivating. Yvonne, Wilma, and Trevor had no clue what the pale stuff was but they knew they wanted a taste of it, or at least their taste buds did. Wilma had enough control to know what was up.
"That's the secret ingredient," Yvonne drooled while watching the nozzle continue to spray, filling what remained of the vat up with the liquid. A loud clunk then sounded and turbines inside it began to turn and mix everything together. That nozzle stopped its spray and everyone was left wishing it would come back.
"I knew they were adding chemicals!" Wilma shouted, though she was barely audible over the machinery clunking before her.
"Not neccisarily," Trevor retorted with a thoughtful look in his eyes. "It's far more likely we're just seeing a concentrated version of a household product, probably a mixture of melted butters, creams, and milk for flavouring."
"I'd think you of all people would be concerned that a company is adding miscellaneous fluid to their product, don't you need to know every detail about everything before making a decision?" Wilma demanded with an accusatory point at Trevor.
"And shouldn't you be fine with whatever random garbage is poured into your food? Your taste buds are already telling you that this stuff smells good so shouldn't you be following your impulses?" Trevor questioned before the two locked gazes and began to growl.
"You just want to hold me back and repeat everything every day, never doing anything new or exciting!" Wilma growled while edging closer to Trevor.
"No, I'm trying to stop you from ruining your life with impulsive choices," Trevor responded while also moving closer. Both players glared at one another through their goggles until Yvonne rose up between them pushed them apart.
"If you two are done, I found where that stuff comes from," she announced while glancing between Wilma and Trevor with a frown on her face. "Trevor, if you're so worried you can go back to the tour group."
Trevor just frowned in response and turned to the side with a glare on his eyes and his nose wrinkled in annoyance. Yvonne quickly swung her head back to Wilma and grabbed her arm before leading her towards a nearby door. A single glance backwards provided her the knowledge that Trevor was continuing to follow them despite all his protests, he'd declined the out she'd handed him, instead concerning himself with their safety and secrecy.
The door was unlocked and the space between the two rooms was labelled with keep out signs and notices to make sure doors were indeed locked. None of the factory employees seemed to care though and everything ranging from lockers to doorways were open. The place clearly had a recurring staff, the type only obtained through years of familiarity. Certain rules were being followed by others had been disregarded in favour of ease of access.
The other end of the changing rooms, bathrooms, and lunch room contained a high tech laboratory with lab coat wearing chemical engineers mixing fluids together and hunched over papers and absolutely perfect fruits and seeds. They'd extract a single drop of grape juice, boil liquids over Bunsen burners, and discuss things over coffee. All the sanitation scrubs and goggles had been exchanged for professional laboratory gear that basically ended at clear goggles to protect the eyes.
Sure it was an intense looking chemistry lab but it didn't seem out of the ordinary to Trevor, Wilma, and Yvonne. Dozens of scientists doing tests with fruit juices, cocoa extract, and milk. It just seemed perfectly normal, all except one detail, one detail that made all three players gasp and recall every room they'd journeyed through up to that point. Every employee in the factory had been female, they'd all stood at the same height and sported the same proportions. Only now did they get a clear look at their faces.
Every single employee present in that lab looked identical to their tour guide.
Wilma, Trevor, and Yvonne glanced left and right, taking in the exact duplicates performing various tasks and chattering in the exact same voices. The fact everyone spoke in the same tones quickly made the gasps the three players were giving off stand out. The trio had dozens of identical blue eyes on them in seconds that noticed Wilma's height, Trevor's skin tone, and Yvonne's chin shape as oddities. A shriek and point were in order and every scientist was suddenly surrounding them with grit teeth and glares on their eyes. Murmurings about trespassers and company secrets swirled around them and Wilma was the first to open her mouth.
"RUN!" She shouted before Trevor bowled over a couple of the scientists with a well-placed shoulder check and cleared a path to a nearby door. Several ladies threw vial of extract at them and a few powders were thrown in their faces. The worst thing they were in possession of was boiling milk, and even then their accuracy with beakers left a lot to be desired. The three players were at the stairwell in seconds and Trevor kicked the door in before bolting down the stairwell ahead of them. Out of breath women followed them but their numbers dwindled as the three players got further and further down the stairwell.
"I guess you were right about something going on here," Yvonne commented while Wilma let out a small whimper in response. Alarms began to blare as they rushed down the stairs and one of the doors along the stairwell was thrust open to reveal much more able bodied factory floor workers. About a dozen gave chase with shouts escaping their lips while the trio slunk deeper down the stairwell.
Yvonne stole a small glance down the well and happened to see the bottom level be kicked in by a few women dressed as security guards with ties, collared shirts, and belts. About five of them erupted from the bottom of the well and they put the factory workers to shame. Sure they all shared a biology but the ladies charging up the stairs had likely spent all their free time benching iron. Because of their presence Yvonne quickly directed Wilma and Trevor towards a nearby door that they all tumbled through it, startling more scientists. When they got back up Yvonne gave an absolutely horrified gasp.
Large vats filled with green liquid and frogs stood all around the room, a nearby scientist was grinding up teeth, and large crates labelled Spare Cockroach Parts lay scattered around the room. Yvonne felt bile rise in her throat and she quickly covered it in disgust right before the factory workers and security guards reached their floor. Wilma quickly grabbed Yvonne's wrist and began to drag her through the maze of horrors. Every time they switched direction or rounded a large vat of frogs Yvonne was exposed to a new horror hidden below the factory floor. A pit full of carnivorous plants, fermenting fruits swarming with maggots, and a bunch of overweight guys in a sauna. Her face was practically locked into a look of horror while she was pulled behind Wilma and stumbling over her own feet.
They reached another door eventually and this door led to another stairwell they rushed up. They burst through the fifth floor to find themselves on the factory floor and the second they were there the elevator next to them dinged and a bunch of security personal flooded out.
"We're in too deep," Wilma whimpered while clutching her hair.
"You kids are coming with us," One of the security women announced while marching towards them in an intimidating manner. A person of authority who was simply doing her job and protecting the security of the factory would normally be the first person Trevor listened to, but in that instance he grabbed Wilma and Yvonne, dragged them to the nearest forklift and leapt into the driver's seat, turning the key as he went and thrusting a hard hat onto Wilma's head before placing one on his own. The security guards burst into a run but Trevor quickly turned the forklift and zipped off along the rows of raw ingredients lined up around them.
The forklift's fastest pace barely out sped the security guards, but it was still faster, so those ladies fell behind them as he began to maneuver the vehicle through a maze of crates. Wilma clutched onto the frame of the machine while Yvonne clung onto the back of the vehicle. Once they were a decent distance away from the ladies behind them Yvonne gave a cheer that was cut short by another forklift nearly colliding with them. A factory worker drove it with expertise while three security guards clung onto the frame with angry looks on their faces.
"Does this thing go any faster?!" Yvonne demanded as a second forklift appeared in front of them, preparing to cut them off.
"Nope," Trevor replied before taking his foot off the acceleration and allowing the vehicle to grind to a near halt, he then slowly turned it to make a sharp corner before slamming his foot on the gas again. The forklift chasing them roared past them with the security guards leaping off as it went. Yvonne looked back at them with fear in her eyes while the forklift she was on rushed past crate after crate containing who knows what, shipped from places most of the world held trade embargos with.
"This is so messed up," Wilma whimpered as they entered another large path cut between two stacks of crates. Factory workers yelped and leapt out of the way as they sped past, they dropped containers filled with frogs, bins of horse lips, and something that smelled suspiciously like glue. Food colouring that would permanently stain the skin splashed up on one worker while another tumbled backwards into a crate filled with lobsters. All the identical women scattered the second the forklift was barreling through their ranks.
"This is so fun," Trevor grinned as he put the forklift into full gear and lowered the pegs to the ground. They scraped against the concrete as he rushed towards an open shipping door. The pegs knocked crates of chocolate, fossils, and grasshoppers out of the way as they zipped under the door and found the other side beginning to close.
"You need to stop!" Wilma ordered.
"I need a new exit," Trevor responded before twisting the forklift towards a makeshift wall crafted out of cheap construction material that would be replaced at a later date. Ladies in the process of building that wall gave loud screams and dove out of the way right before the trio crashed through the thin plaster.
The forklift smashed through the wall into a room filled with large pods containing half grown people that made all three players cringe in disgust. They then smashed into a room where glass separated a garbage press that was creating one of the many fluids added to the chocolate out of landfill waste. Two scientists gave loud screams of surprise before they burst through another wall and found a woman at a desk taking a sip of soda. She proceeded to place it down on the desk without a coaster seconds before the trio smashed through the wall and found themselves airborne. Women in scrubs ran around in panic while they sailed into a large vat of molten chocolate.
The mixture was so thick that the forklift was actually staying afloat, slowly sinking into the bubbling hot chocolate and catching on the top of the mixing turbines. Had they hit any other spot the sinking probably would have been worse but in that moment they were simply afloat in the vat of delicious smelling chocolate that didn't seem so delicious anymore.
"End of the line," A security woman panted as she entered the room through the hole the trio had made. All the security personal looked exhausted from the chase and panted along the side of the vat, taking their time to cross the safety rail.
"I should have listened to you," Wilma admitted as she grabbed Trevor as tightly as she could. "Now we're gonna die."
"You're not going to die," The head security woman announced. "You're just going to spend the rest of your natural lives in an insane asylum so our company secrets don't get out."
"Can I promise not to tell anyone?" Wilma asked with a half-smile.
"No," The security woman responded.
"I guess I got in too deep," Wilma sighed as they continued to slowly sink into the molten chocolate. "You were right all along, if I hadn't been so disregarding towards the rules I'd just be bored in a tour instead of about to die in some chocolate."
"Wilma, listening to me is the last thing you should do," Trevor responded while grabbing her by the arms. "Sure your degenerate habits conflict with my own personal ideals but they're you… and I like you, not some rule following nincompoop obsessed with safety."
"Safety sounds pretty good right now," Wilma replied with a glance at everyone surrounding the vat. The mixer stopped rotating and the heat under them went dead. The chocolate continued to bubble as they balanced precariously on the top of the turbines, inches from sinking below the surface of the mess around them.
"Wilma, I want you to think of the craziest and most outlandish idea you can and just do it," Trevor ordered before letting her go and taking a step backwards. "Just be yourself…"
Wilma glanced left at the security guards and then at some workers to her right working the shutdown sequence. The second she saw them a wild idea formed in her head. She took a glance at Trevor before a smile crept over her face and she bent down, pulled off her shoe, and proceeded to hurl it at the controls. It bashed into the machinery and caused the control panel to begin sparking angrily.
Alarms instantly started blaring and multiple workers gave screams of shock and terror as the entire melting pot began to tilt. Wilma thrust her arms into the air and instantly went for the controls of the forklift. Trevor however, got in her way and put on a smirk.
"I think this part requires a little safety," Trevor grinned before taking the wheel and preparing for what came next.
The entire vat suddenly spilled over, boiling hot chocolate washed over the ground and they rode a wave of it. A bunch splashed up onto Yvonne and she gave a short scream of pain when it hit her arm before sucking on the burn and smiling at the taste. Factory workers ran away in front of the wave of molten cocoa and jumped at support beams and atop conveyer belts to escape it while Trevor slammed his foot down on the gas. They spun out for a second before rocketing forward with chocolate flying off behind them. Yvonne spat out the chocolate in her mouth at this point, paused, and proceeded to put more in her mouth before repeating the process. They crashed through conveyer belts, knocked chocolate bars to the floor, and were followed by a slowing wave of chocolate. They finally spun out and skid to a halt when they collided with the completed crates at the end of the assembly line. They were thrust from the forklift alongside dozens of chocolate bars and landed with thuds at the feet of the last person they wanted to be caught by.
"What are you three doing wearing factory uniforms?!" The tour guide demanded as she loomed over them. Security rushed up behind the trio as they stared up at the cross look on the same face they'd been pursued by all day. All their teammates stared at them with random blinks erupting on their faces.
"This place is pure evil!" Wilma exclaimed with a leap to her feet. "The chocolate is flavoured with garbage, they're using illegal ingredients, and the entire factory is manipulating the world's taste buds for money!"
"They're cloning people!" Trevor exclaimed while grabbing a nearby security guard and shaking her until she slapped him in the face.
"A lady didn't use a coaster!" Yvonne added with a leap into the air and a pause in front of the factory owner. She stared at the woman for a few seconds before lowering her head in a broken hearted motion. "I trusted your brand, I liked your brand, I loved your brand, and all this time it was actually literal garbage."
"And who was it that discovered our factory secrets?" The guide demanded with a narrow of her eyes. An intense silence filled the air as she glanced between Trevor, Wilma, and Yvonne. As she did both Trevor and Wilma took a step back while Yvonne glanced back at them. She took in a deep breath, put on a brave face, and turned towards the woman before her with confidence blooming on her face.
"I did," She announced. "I dragged these two into it and saw a bunch of stuff that's quite hard to process."
"Well then…" The guide announced as two security guards walked up behind Yvonne and cut off any chance of escape she had. "YOU'RE OUR BIIIIIIIG WINNER!"
Suddenly the entire air of the room changed, a bunch of the security force suddenly began clapping while the guide thrust her hand out and shook Yvonne's. Yvonne simply looked around in utter confusion while the clapping died down.
"I'm confused…" Yvonne admitted.
"We set up the whole thing," The guide laughed while backing up to Chris and discreetly handing him a wad of bills. "Your uh, real challenge was to discover a… a… a hidden dark secret in the factory and the one who discovered the worst one would, would win the challenge or something… Yeah… That's it."
"What about the clones?" Trevor demanded with a point at the identical ladies behind him.
"Oh those are actors," The guide replied with a wave of her hand. "We stuck the ones that looked like me in uniforms while everyone else wore scrubs and covered their faces."
"But the secret ingredient," Wilma stated with a point back at the room they'd washed out of.
"Well take the smell of chocolate and multiply it by a thousand and you get a pretty decent scent out of it," The guide explained with a clap of her hands. "Every person's taste buds are attracted to something more than the rest of the ingredients, what you smelled may have just been a concentration of cream, cocoa, or ground nuts."
"You mean I won?" Yvonne asked with a gasp. "And Norfield chocolate isn't flavoured by frogs and mixed by illegally bred clone labour."
"Nope," The guide replied before being handed a bar of chocolate by one of the security personal. "In fact, have the first bar of this latest batch, for a keepsake…"
"Oh my," Yvonne gasped as she was handed the chocolate bar. The guide turned to whisper something to her security guard before blinking and turning back to Yvonne, who had eaten the entire chocolate bar in the span of her whispering. The guide turned back to the guard and ordered her to disregard her last order.
"I don't buy it," Wilma announced in a defiant tone.
"Whether you believe what we set up here today is fictional or not doesn't matter, what does matter is that you two lose, and as a tiebreaker we'll be having a chocolate eating contest sponsored by Norfield Chocolate, a subsidiary of Genetitec, you're family friendly Bioengineering Corporation," The guide announced while mugging for the camera.
Confessional
Chris thumbs through the wad of bills he was handed and the look of glee on his face extends from ear to ear.
"In two thousand and two, we, The Norfield Chocolate Company, produced a new brand of chocolate bars that contained raisins," the tour guide explained as security personal, or perhaps actors, thrust Wilma and Trevor down onto a bench. A third employee grabbed a tarp and tugged it off a pile of chocolate bars with a cartoon raisin on the front that definitely fell into the uncanny. "We ended up pulling the bar after four months due to astronomically low sales. The good news is that our family friendly recipes keep these things in their best before date for ten years."
"But it's been sixteen years," Wilma protested before earning a maniacal look from the guide that no one but she and Trevor could see.
"Precisely," the guide grinned before planting a hand firmly on the table. "You two were the only ones on your teams to see the, horrors, of our factory and as you can tell by the sheer amount of it that we've collected here, the idea was for everyone to discover the alleged secrets of the factory and then eat chocolate. I'd say your victory in this challenge is completely dependent on whether you believe what you saw was real or fake. You have five minutes, most bars consumed wins immunity, loser gets to send one of their teammates home."
"You believe what we saw was real right?" Wilma asked Trevor with a sigh the second their guide had stepped back.
"Yep, we're eating frog water," Trevor replied.
"Well, let's hope with nineteen eliminations behind us we're past the point of blaming whomever cost the team a challenge," Wilma smiled before a small bell was rung and a timer was set for five minutes.
The best way to describe that particular brand of chocolate bar was the same as describing an oatmeal raisin cookie, and not for the reasons one would think. Both players knew there were raisins going in and they proved to be the least disturbing part of the bar. What threw them off was the texture. Years had done some serious harm to the innards of those chocolate bars and they were riddled with dried up chucks that were difficult to bite into. The raisins were fine but the chocolate had clearly degraded in a weird way, likely due to all the chemicals involved. The taste had gone sour, it left sawdust like crumbs in the mouth that absorbed way too much moisture, and the aftertaste drifted from the mouth and up into the nostrils where it made both players recoil from the smell. They'd smelled delicious chocolate all day but the mere thought of the state it was in being the aftereffect was a disturbing prospect.
The teams watched their respective player try to earn a victory and it was painful. Everyone assumed the gagging was from the raisin branded bars that were six years past expiry but the eaters could link every flavour to something they saw. They tasted dumpster juice, sweat, and frogs dipped in liquid. They could picture the clones hard at work, warehouses stocked with illegal ingredients, and acne that would break out on their faces in the morning.
Bar after bar passed down their gullets but neither player got past five. By that point Wilma had her face on the table groaning and Trevor was dry heaving from the taste. Everyone watched this unfold before them until the buzzer ran out and Wilma slammed her head against the table and groaned louder than before. Everyone saw the peeled open wrappers and one team burst into cheers while the other groaned. Wilma had managed to choke down four chocolate bars but Trevor was at five, a number that secured his team from elimination for the umpteenth time.
"I never want to eat chocolate again," Wilma proclaimed.
"That's a lie," Trevor replied with a laugh that Wilma returned a few seconds later.
"I hear it's illegal in Brazil," Trevor noted, a phrasing that caused Wilma to snort with laugher and recall one of their many get-togethers.
"Hey, I'm sorry about earlier, I kind of dragged you into my rule breaking," Wilma sighed while avoiding eye contact. "I guess that sort of behaviour made you uncomfortable."
"It's fine, I didn't exactly let you know it bothered me in the first place," Trevor agreed while glancing at his celebrating team. "How can I expect a problem to be solved if I never bring it up?"
"We cool?" Wilma asked while holding out a fist.
"We cool," Trevor replied while bumping her fist. "And you know, we could probably continue dating if you just give me a little heads up before you dooooooomph!"
Trevor was cut off by Wilma slinging herself around the table and grabbing him in a passionate kiss that he hadn't been expecting in the slightest. He floundered for a few seconds before shrugging and grabbing her, kissing back with equal passion.
Jump Cut
Elimination Deck
"I have only one mint left on this plate," Chris announced as a cold northern wind blew through his hair. "The five of you are about to become four, numbers smaller than The Pathetic Plankton ended with, though I must say, it's still a rather surprising development to me considering some of your members. But alas one of you will be heading home tonight.
"Wilma, you were the only active challenge member in today's fight but bit it bigtime when it came to the tiebreaker, too bad you didn't have Louise's iron guts there huh? And speaking of Louise, you're sitting here without a mint for reasons unknown. I can already tell this vote isn't being based off any kind of performance since you've both proven yourselves to be worthy players."
Wilma and Louise exchanged a look during this time, knowing full well what inner team drama had forced them to this point. Wilma's daring motion to stand up for Raina a few days back had driven a rift between her and her teammates. He was there because she'd directly targeted him for his manipulative strategies and backhanded lying. The fact he was so open about his manipulation gave off an air of cockiness that annoyed her to her very core. He was crafty and had likely prepared a strategy for her, so she'd gotten all her affairs in order just in case.
She'd hung out with Trevor for most of the afternoon, anticipating that this could possibly be her last night aboard the ship. There had been a solid hour devoted to putting up graffiti in the bowels of the ship that spelled out her name in neon pinks and blaringly loud purples. Then there were her bags at her feet, all zipped up and double checked for lost items and snacks snagged from the minibars. Louise hadn't finalized his bags or anything which gave off a confident air that made a growl crawl onto Wilma's face.
Two very different reactions could emerge from the elimination ceremony, shocked anger from Louise and calm acceptance from Wilma. Louise didn't need the money but the concept of losing a game would bring out his inner rage. Wilma likewise wasn't exactly dying to get her hands on that cool million, she definitely wanted to travel but wanted to do it by hitchhiking and backpacking about with very little money.
"The final mint of the evening goes to…" Chris trailed while gazing back and forth between the final two contestants…
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… Louise," Chris concluded while tossing the final mint to the dark skinned boy. He grew a mischievous grin while Wilma stood up and stretched her back. She was a little upset to be leaving but placing twenty first in a forty player game was far from terrible. Besides, she wasn't exactly a big fan of the slave wage hours and fancy places they were visiting. To her they'd simply skipped over the raw reality of the many countries.
"Well, it's been fun," Wilma smiled while giving Raina a comforting pat on the back and standing up. She then approached the lifeboat and began loading her things into it. Once everything was inside the elimination ceremony found itself interrupted.
"WAIT!" Trevor called while rushing over the wooden floorboards and grinding to a halt right in front of Wilma.
"Aw, you came to see me off," Wilma smirked while placing a hand on the edge of the boat.
"If I win this thing our first date can be anywhere you want, anywhere in the world," Trevor proclaimed with a sad smile crossing his face.
"Let me think," Wilma mused while tapping her finger on her chin almost mockingly. "How about… the movies!"
"The movies?" Trevor asked with a blink.
"Can't destroy that stiff backed awkwardness in one go, it's too adorable for that," Wilma replied before poking Trevor right in the nose and proceeding to punch him in the arm. He gave a laugh and rubbed the hit area while Wilma hopped into the boat with a huge grin on her face. "DROP IT CHRIS!"
"You got it," Chris replied with a shrug before hitting the line and releasing Wilma. The girl gave a laughter filled cheer as she fell, and with a splash she hit the water below and began to drift away from the boat with Trevor watching. The remaining girls on The Outrageous Orca quickly got up and walked away while Louise sauntered over to Trevor with a victorious smirk on his face.
"I tried to save her," He admitted with a shrug as he leaned against the railing. "I argued that she was a way stronger asset than Raina but Lucile was committed. I personally don't get why we kicked her off but you have my condolences regardless."
"Lucile voted her off?" Trevor asked with a blink.
"Yep, that one's a sneaky one, let me tell you," Louise replied before patting Trevor on the shoulder and beginning to walk off. As he did a smirk grew on his face and he pocketed his hands. Whether anything came out of his comments or not was up to Trevor's actions. But he was hoping for one singular outcome, that Trevor would mention some arbitrary hatred around Liam and The Nasty Narwhal would spiral out of control, because he had to admit it. He really didn't want to have to put his next plan into action. "We're at the final twenty, if you aren't taking this game seriously yet your days are numbered. It'll get harder to survive with each elimination and unless you want to end up like your girlfriend I suggest you start being proactive."
With that being said Louise sauntered off, leaving Trevor alone on the rear deck, suddenly short one friend and unsure if he had very many more.