(Matilda's POV)
At this point, I'm in a panic. After an incident I had at a fair on a log flume/tunnel ride, I've become terrified of being trapped in one.
"Matilda?" Sophie asks me.
"You okay?"
I shake my head quickly.
"Not really."
"Why are you so afraid?"
"It was something that happened to her when she was four, I think," Veruca pipes up.
"Now she's terrified of tunnel rides and log flumes. And if it's both, which this one is, oh boy."
I tremble just at the mere sound of the drip, drip, drip from the river.
"Okay, but if we don't get out of here, those oompa loompas are gonna come and get us," Alfie reminds us.
"You need to work past this, Matilda. Or else you'll become Wonka's daughter and you'll never be able to leave the factory."
My stomach lurches at the idea. Never leaving the factory? I wouldn't be able to go to school. I wouldn't be able to travel anywhere. I'd be trapped like a bird in a cage. Taking a deep breath, I attempt to collect myself and I stand up. Glancing to my left, as my eyes have adjusted to the darkness, I see two logs coming our way.
"We'll have to take the logs."
"But Wonka said—" Dani begins.
"I don't care what he said! If we just stay here, we're giving up. At the very least, we should try to escape."
I walk over to the edge of the ride and wait. When a log comes into my vicinity, I stretch my leg out and step inside. It rocks back and forth slightly as I step in and situate myself inside, causing my heart to jump.
The squirrels jump onto the log with me. Augustus, Violet, Veruca, and Uncle Nigel end up taking the log behind me.
As we travel through the tunnel in near silence, I can't help but keep my guard up. I feel like I'm being watched. I vocalize my concerns to the rest of the group.
"Wonka DID say there were animatronics ready to grab us," Sophie points out.
"But as long as we stay away from the edge, we should be fine."
All of a sudden, something swipes just in front of my face from my left. I freeze in place.
"Do I want to look?" I squeak.
Then it swipes again, just inches from my face. Glancing to my left, my heart flips to see a light turn on a reveal a pirate with bleeding scars all over his face. Bones seem to almost protrude, creating massive bumps in his skin.
"Who, or what, are you?"
"Yar," he growls pirately and demonically.
"I be Captain Jack, king of the candy skeletons."
As the log moves, I'm surprised, and honestly terrified, to find that he can move along with. As we proceed forward, skeletons show up beside him.
"And I'm here to plunder the Sweet One from her log and bring her to the master."
The what now?
"The Sweet One?" I ask.
"Yar," he confirms.
"She be the key to conquering the world for me master."
"Are you all comprised of the ghosts of previous children who were killed here?" Alfie gasps.
"Nar, we be artificial intelligence, lad."
"I don't think any children have been killed here," says a voice in a British accent to the right of me.
I look to see a skeleton in a bowler hat, monocle, and mustache carrying a cane.
"Yet."
At that last word, the skeleton growls demonically.
"Look into my eyes, Matilda," Captain Jack commands.
Trying to look away, I see a flash of red. It's menacing, yet hypnotic. After a few more flashes, it stops. I turn my back to the animatronics.
"Ha! Looks like you're outnumbered, Captain Jack," I taunt him.
All of a sudden, I hear a shrill, ear-piercing, saw-against-a-metal-board scream. All around me, mechanical eyes light up the same hypnotic, menacing red.
"Um, I think WE may be outnumbered, Matilda," Billie shivers.
All of a sudden, I hear various growls, hisses, and clicks as a bunch of animatronic hands reach out to grab me. I try to duck and jump, nearly being caught by a hook or a hand or a claw every few seconds. At the same time, I attempt to dodge their hypnotic eyes, flashing like a bunch of strobe lights.
"This is insane!" I yell as I duck into the interior of the log.
"Join us, Matilda," a demonic chipmunk-esque voice yells.
"Join us, and we'll rule the world."
Soon every other voice follows and each begin to echo each other perpetually, making my ears throb.
"What are we gonna do?"
"Wait!" Veruca yells from the other log.
"I see something."
I look up to see where she's pointing. Following her finger, I find a board of switches mounted into the wall of the cave behind the animatronics.
"Use whatever you used to stack those chocolate bars, and maybe that will turn them off."
Normally I don't take advice from my cousin, but she might be right. I try to block out the echoes and muster my force to bring those red hands back out.
Flip the switches, I think.
Flip the dang switches!
Out of nowhere, one hand shoots out and flips a switch. Another shoots out and flips another, and another, and another until all eight are flipped. Unfortunately it doesn't work.
"There's gotta be a combination of some sorts," I grumble as I set to work, trying every combination I can think of. Soon I manage to figure out how long I have to make this work, but not without Captain Jack trying to invade my thoughts with some strange poem, in a high-pitched shriek, like a demonic parrot.
Each combo takes approximately fifteen seconds to create with a five second reset time if I get it wrong, I think.
"OH, THERE IS NO WAY OF KNOWING!"
Twenty seconds per combo times at least sixty-four potential combinations, what is that?
"YES, THERE IS NO WAY OF KNOWING!"
Let's see. Divide sixty-four by maximum number of combos I can attempt per minute, three,
"WHICH DIRECTION YOU ARE GOING! WHICH DIRECTION YOU ARE GOING!"
to get twenty-one point three three three and so on, meaning it would take about twenty-one minutes
"IS A HURRICANE A-BLOWING? IS IT SOON TO BE A-SNOWING?"
and twenty seconds to try every single combination. At the rate the log is moving, I won't have enough time to try them all, especially while trying to avoid the light and appendages.
"IS THE TIME TO BE A-SLOWING OR ARE YOU TO BE A-GOING?"
"Oh, shut up!" I snap.
On top of that, my hands are beginning to sense my exhaustion and now take a lot longer to come out, so it's gonna take even longer than twenty-one minutes and twenty seconds. I tell the others, and I hear a loud grunt and screams. I look to see Augustus standing up and stepping out onto the platform, rocking the log.
"Let me take care of this!" he exclaims.
He hunches his neck, making himself into a ball, before pushing himself, sending him flying in the direction of the control panel.
Sparks fly, and the animatronics begin to flash their lights and swipe at me. Their cries begin to increase, both in volume and in tempo. It begins to overload my mind, my heart begins to race, and I begin to perspire heavily. Why is everything in doubles?
I feel myself falling backwards. The back of my head hits against something hard, and soon all I can see is darkness.