(Matilda's POV)
For a few moments, the three of us are silent. I try to act nonchalant, even though I know it won't work.
"Heyyyyyy," I greet them, casually saluting them as my foot drags in a semicircle.
"Nice day, huh?"
There's another moment of silence as they simply stare.
"That's the mistress," one of them gasps in a squeaky voice.
"Get her!" says the other in a nasally voice.
I brace myself as they charge towards me. This is it. This is the end.
"Not so fast, stinkfaces!" a squeaky voice announces.
The two of them skid to a halt and turn to see an army of about half a dozen squirrels glaring at them menacingly. In their hands are unshelled, large, hard walnuts.
"Squirrels, attack!" the voice screams.
Immediately, they begin to pelt the two with rock-hard walnuts until they collapse from the trauma with a thud. My heart beats rapidly as I stare at them in disbelief.
"Are they….?" I begin.
One of them races over to them. With each one, they pick up their wrists in their tiny little paws and checks.
"Nope, they're alive," they confirm.
I breathe a sigh of relief.
"We'll have to get rid of them," I decide.
"Quick! Let's lock them in there!" one of them suggests pointing to the conversion chamber.
Quickly, three of the squirrels takes the body of the nasally Oompa-Loompa while the other two and I take the body of the squeaky one. With some struggle, we throw them inside and slam the door on them. While one of the squirrels works on the lock with their paw, the other four and I barricade the other door, just in case any Oompa-Loompas tried to get inside.
"Okay," I breathe after we've finished barricading the door.
"Now that we took care of Nasal and Squeaky and blocked the doorway, what happened to you?"
"It's a long story," the curly-blonde-haired squirrel sighs.
"Billie, that's you, right?" I ask.
"Indeed," she squeaks.
"I was the first to go missing along with Alfie."
The squirrel with the big eyes and light brown tuft of hair on his head, waves a tiny paw.
"We were out walking together," Alfie squeaks.
"I was trying to get her to come to the factory with me because I thought I saw a figure in front of the factory. When I couldn't spot it, I swear I heard someone calling my name. I dragged Billie around back with me and then when I couldn't see anything, I felt a blow to my head. Next thing I knew, I was a squirrel."
"Sophie probably already told you about me," another one says.
"Dani?"
She nods slowly. All of a sudden, I hear a tiny tap-tap-tap. I turn to find a squirrel with a curly, dark-brown tuft of hair on its head and big eyes, tapping its foot impatiently.
"Well," it squeaks.
"I didn't want to say it, but I told you so."
"Okay, fine, you dodo! You were right!" I growl at James.
"Actually I'm a squirrel."
"Whatever! So what now?"
"Why are you here?" Alfie asks.
"Are you gonna become a squirrel too?"
"No," I reply.
"Wonka wants to make me his daughter."
The squirrels give tiny gasps.
"Why?" Alfie asks in astonishment.
"I don't know," I groan.
"Something about creativity IQ or something. Anyway, where do we go from here?"
"Well," Sophie pipes up.
"When Nasal and Squeaky finished up my transformation, I heard them talking about an antidote for us squirrel hybrids in case of an accidental conversion. They said there are about a dozen vials of them down in the depths of the factory somewhere."
"There must be a lab of some sorts then. Right, how do we get down there?"
"Well, I also heard there's an emergency chute in here in case of an intruder or a chemical mishap. I don't remember where they said it was."
"Let's look around and find it then. Quick! Before Nasal and Squeaky wake up."
"What about Wonka?" Dani asks as we scurry around the room.
"He's giving the golden ticket tour. I doubt he'll catch us if we're careful."
The six of us begin shifting boxes around and moving things this way and that when Billie calls out.
"I think I found something."
We rush over to her to find what looks to be an old-fashioned laundry chute door.
"This has to be it," I say.
"Come on."
With some effort, we open the door. The passage ahead looks dark and foreboding, but it could be our only way out where we won't be caught.
"On three," I whisper.
"One, two, three."
The six of us bolt forward into the chute finding ourselves in a winding slide of darkness. It feels like it spirals on and on forever until I see a dim light up ahead. Soon I go flying onto a moving floodway. I breathe a sigh of relief after checking myself over; nothing broken.
"I think we're in the clear," I gasp.
"Not quite," Dani squeaks in fear as we hear a loud thud.
I look around to find that we're on one of Wonka's high-rise chocolate bar conveyors. And not too up ahead is the press that imprints the Wonka logo into the bars.