Chris Mclean opened the door, and immediately, Cameron, along with everybody else, gasped. The door opened to reveal a room of massive proportion, bigger than 100 of Cameron's houses stacked next to each other. However, it wasn't just the size of the room that made everybody stop dead in their tracks: the room was split by a raging river of what looked like pure, rich, creamy chocolate. The ground was covered in green grass that smelled of spearmint when the artificial breeze blew. There was a pathway made of what appeared to be some sort of butterscotch, and marshmallow clouds fluttered above. The room truly was a wonder to behold, and it was no surprise that everyone was stunned silent.

"Is...is this really real? Like, I can't believe what I'm seeing right now, man! Pinch me, I must be dreaming!", Owen said, tearing up just a little bit. He was saying what everyone else was thinking, save for Chris.

"Yes, sir, Owen my man! This may be the room I'm proudest of, which is why I wanted to show it off first! The Chocolate Room is very unique in that everything, and I mean everything, in this room is edible! To demonstrate, everyone grab a blade of grass. I promise it doesn't taste like grass; They have been delicately crafted to taste like a fine mint!", Chris told everyone. With that, everyone plucked a blade of grass from the ground (except for Owen, who grabbed a whole handful) and started eating it. Positive murmurs ran through the crowd.

"So everything in this room is edible? Even the door we came in?", one of the parents asked.

"Technically, yes. But it is made of wood, and wood is very difficult to digest, so I wouldn't recommend doing it.", Chris replied with a smirk. "Now if you'll follow me down this yellow brick road, I'd love to give you all a tour of this amazing room!"

As the group started moving forward (kids in the front, adults behind them), everyone started to adapt to the sights, sounds, and smells of the room. The warm smell of delicious chocolate filled their noses, and although they tried their best to focus on the whole room, they were transfixed with this river of chocolate, which flowed just like water. Gooey, delicious water. And then, from the back of the group, Owen's mother screamed.

"WHAT THE-Mclean, I just saw something move!"

"Yeah, that's the river. You see, the difference between a body of liquid like a river and something like a lake is that in a river, the liquid tends to move, and-"

"No, I mean I saw a...thing! It had a body, and a head, and it was moving around over there!"

Chris slapped his forehead. "Shoot, how could I forget? Everyone, say hello to my good friends, the interns!" As he motioned with his hand, suddenly two short little men came running over to join the group.

"These adorable little fellas are my workers. They help me run the factory, make chocolate, and they basically do everything I tell them to do!"

Cody spoke up. "So there have been workers at this place for years and no one's known about it? That's kinda weird"

"You know, I'm glad you asked me that question, because now I get to talk about my favorite subject...me!" Seeing the confused looks on everyone's faces, Chris let out a chuckle. "Only kidding. You see, the interns aren't actually from the city. They're not even from this country! Many years ago, right after I shut down the factory the first time, I needed a break. I had a lot on my mind after the spies took everything." Cameron noticed that whenever Chris said the word "spies", he said it with disdain. "So I went to the travel agency and I told them to book me a flight to the most exotic place they had! And a couple days later, I flew out to the magic land of Wawanakwa!"

"Now hold on there, Mr. Mclean!" Cody's father interrupted. "I've taught geography for many years, and I've never heard of or seen any place called Wawanakwa!"

"Well, then you're using the wrong maps. I don't know what to tell ya.", Chris replied. "Anyway, as I was going about my daily life relaxing in my cabin, I noticed these tiny people running around my campsite. Up to this point, I thought that I was completely alone, so this was quite a shock to me! So one day, I set out a peace offering of a chocolate bar, and sure enough, they accepted it. Within no time, I had earned their trust!" The kids looked at Mclean, transfixed by his story. The adults were looking at each other, rolling their eyes at such an outlandish tale.

"After their leader and I had become friends, they explained to me their situation. They were stuck living in dilapidated cabins in an abandoned summer camp, and they lived in constant fear of the vicious creatures that prowled at night. Probably because Wawanakwa used to be a radioactive dump. Anyway, I promised that I could get them out of it. And all they had to do was come back here to work for me!"

"Wait, so do you pay them? Sounds like they kinda got shafted here", Courtney said.

"Oh, I pay them, but not with money. See, since they live here, money means nothing to them since they have nothing to spend it on. Instead, I pay them in chocolate. All the chocolate they want, in exchange for their work."

"Still, kinda sounds like a sketchy system to me…"

"Courtney, I'm setting a timer in my head for five minutes. If you criticize my methods during those five minutes, I am going to be a bit upset." With that, Courtney glared at Chris but kept her mouth shut. "Let's move on, shall we? These interns are perfectly friendly. As a matter of fact, they were super excited about all of you coming here today!"

Cameron smiled at one of them, who waved back enthusiastically. Cameron turned to Grandpa Joe and said, "This is amazing! Honestly, this feels like a dream come true, but not in my wildest dreams did I imagine anything as crazy as this!" Grandpa Joe smiled warmly and replied, "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, Cam! I've always imagined what the inside of this place would look like, and it's definitely better than what I imagined."

The tour came to a stop in front of the river, which had a series of pipes sucking up the chocolate. "Mr. Mclean, what are all those pipes for?", Cameron asked.

" Well, this chocolate isn't doing much good only in this room. It definitely looks nice, but I would lose a lot of money if the only thing it did was look nice. So those pipes carry the chocolate all over the factory. For example, that pipe over there"-he pointed to a thick pipe at the back of the room- "delivers chocolate to the coffee room, where we combine it with all kinds of different flavors to create the best coffee-slash-chocolate flavored treats!"

"How about that pipe, that really tiny one right there?" Cameron asked, pointing to a skinny pipe right on the far banks of the river.

"Honestly, I kinda forgot where that one went. A lot of the smaller pipes in the factory lead to some of the less important rooms, and-HEY!"

Chris frantically pointed a finger at the banks of the river, and everyone quickly turned their heads to see what the issue was. The issue was that Owen Moore had (somehow) silently slipped away from the rest of the group down to the chocolate river, and was now kneeling down at the river's side, rapidly shoveling the liquid chocolate into his mouth with his hands.

"Owen, get away from that river! That is pristine milk chocolate and it should not under ANY circumstances be contaminated by human hands! I don't even touch that chocolate!" Chris shouted as he made his way down to where Owen was gorging. The rest of the group followed closely behind.

"Come on, Mr. Mclean, I'm sure he's just a bit hungry! Besides, I don't see the harm! There's so much chocolate in there, what's a couple mouthfuls?" Owen's mother exclaimed.

"Yeah! This is so delicious! It's like everything I've ever wanted. I'll stop after a couple more times!" Owen pleaded his case to Chris, who was practically pulling his hair out next to him and his mother.

" No, Owen, you don't understand! If that chocolate goes out contaminated, and some unlucky chump-I mean customer-eats it and gets sick, it would be horrible! That would lead to bad publicity, which leads to court cases, which leads to"-he visibly shuddered as he said- "legal fees! I cannot allow you to keep dipping your paws in that chocolate!"

The others in the group were visibly horrified by what they were seeing. "That's absolutely disgusting! Quit doing that!", Heather said. And for once, she was right. "It's a lawsuit waiting to happen!", Grandpa Joe shouted. "Cody, stop recording this! I thought I told you not to smuggle another cell phone with you!" Cody's father shouted; Cody quickly hid the phone, thus saving it from being thrown at another wall.

"Last one, I swear!" Owen said. "Wait, I feel a sneeze coming on...ah...Ah...AH...CHOOOOOOOO!" And with that, the portly boy teetered for a second, stopped for a second as if frozen in time, and fell into the chocolate river with a huge splash.

Hey, everyone, so I'm gonna be honest, I kinda forgot about this story because I've been so busy recently. However, with the quarantine in full effect, I decided to recommit myself to writing this story! I apologize not updating you guys, and also I apologize for the shorter chapter this time around, but rest assured that I will resume working on this. Side note: I am unsure if I want to write songs for the interns to sing, like the Oompa Loompas do in the book. What do you guys think? Should I write one? TUS