A wave of panic swept over the crowd as the flying chocolate headed straight for them and their fancy clothes they wore that day. The majority of them were also panicked because Owen had just fallen in the chocolate river, but unfortunately it was not all of them.
"Ah, Daddy, some of the chocolate just hit my shoes! Now they're ruined! I'm gonna need new ones just like these", Heather yelled at her father.
"Of course, darling, but don't you already have another pair just like them at home?", her father replied.
"Yes, but I'm gonna need backups for those, since I'll be wearing those around from now on!"
"Right. How could I forget?" This was said without an ounce of sarcasm. From behind them, Grandpa Joe elbowed Cameron and rolled his eyes. "Isn't that just the silliest phrase you've ever heard, Cam?", he asked the boy.
"Yeah, definitely. Kinda wish I had two pairs of shoes myself, but I'll take what I can get" Cameron replied.
Amongst all the commotion, there were two people who were panicking the most: Chris Mclean and Owen's mother.
"NO! My chocolate! It's contaminated! It's ruined!" Chris looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown as he paced up and down the banks of the river. Cameron even swore he saw Chris bite his hat in angst.
"Mr. Mclean, what about Owen! He can't swim; he'll sink like a stone! You need to do something!", Owen's mother pleaded.
"Ms. Moore, do you know how much product could potentially be wasted? This could be catastrophic! Unless-everyone here signed that contract, right?" At this everyone nodded with confusion. "Good, technically there is a clause in there that prohibits each of you from disclosing what happens in here. Man, I love contracts!"
"Chris, my son is still in there!" Ms. Moore reminded Chris, who snapped back to reality. "Oh, right. Well, first we have to locate him in there: he could be anywhere!"
"I see him, right there!" Courtney exclaimed as she pointed to a ripple in the middle of the river. Owen surfaced, breathing heavily, his whole body covered in liquid chocolate. "FOR THE LOVE OF FUDGE, HELP ME!", the portly boy managed to get out. He attempted to tread water (or chocolate, in this case) and did so for a few seconds before slowly sinking down and dipping below the water again. By this point everyone was watching everything, not even bothering to make comments to the others. Even Cody had his eyes solely on Owen who was coming up for air, but drifting further to the other side of the river.
"Hey, Chris, it kinda looks like he's moving closer to that big pipe over there. What are the chances of him getting….sucked in?", Cody asked Chris.
"Depends: If he's heading for a smaller pipe, we should be fine. He seems quite large, and the risk of him getting sucked into a pipe half the size of him is pretty small. If he heads for one of the larger pipes, it would be a really tight fit, but there is a slim chance of that happening" Chris replied.
"Yeah, the pipe he's moving towards looks pretty big. Still, he may be too fat for that thing as well!" Heather pointed out with a hint of malice in her voice.
"Would you shut it? He could be in real danger!" Courtney snapped as she blew another bubble with her ever-present piece of gum.
"Oh, please, little miss brown-noser! If you're so concerned for him, why don't you just jump in and save him! You've gotta be a record-holder in swimming or something!", Heather retorted back, and the two girls glared at each other until a scream broke their concentration.
"Oh my god! The pipe! He's headed right towards it!", Ms. Moore screamed. And indeed he was. Owen was now only about five feet from the large pipe. The boy was trying his hardest to swim away, but it was true: he couldn't swim. As the whole crowd watched on in horror, Owen finally gathered his bearings and turned around to face the pipe. Just as he was about to be sucked up, he paddled to the side with an surprising amount of athleticism for someone his size, and after a struggle, he was able to hoist himself up just a little bit so that he was no longer at risk of sinking back in. He was holding on to the pipe, both arms wrapped firmly around it, and he was breathing heavily.
"My god, he's covered in chocolate! I don't even think I can make out what pattern his shirt has on it!" Cameron said.
"Even worse: it's my chocolate! There's probably about $150 worth of chocolate on him right now! I can't sell that!" Chris panicked. He turned around to see a furious Ms. Moore looking at him.
"Who cares if you lose money? We need to fish him out of there!", Ms. Moore said, hitting Chris with her purse. "Ow, geez, okay! Interns!" Chris yelled. Two interns rushed over to him. "Go see if you can't get the giant net." One of the interns motioned for Chris to lean over, and he whispered in his ear. "Yes, I mean the one from the Giant Cow room! Oh-sorry, Ms. Moore, I didn't mean to say it that loud." Chris replied as the interns rushed off further into the chocolate room.
"Hey, everyone, I'm OK! My grip strength is really good, so I can hold on for a lot longer!" Owen yelled from his spot in the river.
"Somehow, I severely doubt that. His weight, combined with the constant pull of the chocolate getting sucked in the tube, means that sooner or later, he's gonna have to let go." Cody said, sounding more bored than anything else. His father promptly shushed him. Cameron noticed that Cody had his phone out, though he was doing his best to hide it from everyone else. Cameron looked around the crowd. He noticed that all the parents were looking around at each other. Chris was still pacing like mad with worry, but all of the other Golden Ticket winners seemed to be focused on other things. Cody was invested playing some game on his phone, Heather was glaring at Courtney, and Courtney was glaring right back while chewing her gum furiously. Owen even seemed to be more interested in looking at the chocolate river than he was in the rest of the group! Cameron, Grandpa Joe, Chris, and Ms. Moore seemed to be the only ones concerned with Owen's fate! Cameron looked at Grandpa Joe, who gave him a sad shake of the head, as if to say "I see it too, and I don't like it one bit."
Cameron suddenly noticed one thing: Owen had let go of his killer grip on the pipe and had started scooping his hand in the chocolate and eating it again! Everyone else started to notice this, and Chris and Ms. Moore in particular started to shout at him. "Owen, resist the temptation! Wait there and try to hang on for just a minute or two longer and the interns should be there to help you out!", Chris advised. "Listen to what Mr. Mclean says! Get your arm back around that pipe, young man!", Ms. Moore chimed in.
"But...but...it's so GOOD!" Owen pleaded back. With that, he began scooping the chocolate into his mouth again. A door opened up somewhere, and four interns came running in, carrying what seemed like a giant net. As they neared the boy, someone noticed something. "His hand is slipping!", Heather exclaimed. Indeed it was: since the hand wrapped around the pipe was already covered in chocolate, and since Owen was leaning to dip his other hand into the river, all of his weight was making it harder and harder for him to grip the pipe.
Just as the interns reached Owen and were about to drop the net into the chocolate river to pick him up, Owen's grip slipped, and he fell back into the river. From the shore, Ms. Moore screamed with panic. Once again, Owen struggled to keep his head above water, but he had started to get pulled closer and closer to the pipe, and this time he couldn't avoid it. Cameron saw Owen go under for a second, and then…
"My god, he's gotten sucked in!", one of the parents shouted. Owen had indeed gotten sucked into the pipe, and he was slowly rising up.
"Mclean, this is all your fault! My boy is going to get turned into fudge!" Ms. Moore screamed at Chris.
"Don't worry, he won't be made into fudge", Chris said with a chuckle. "That pipe doesn't go to the fudge room, it goes to the marshmallow room! If anything, he may be marshmallow-ified. But hopefully", he smirked "that doesn't happen."
"Wait, he's slowing down!", Cameron said. "He could get stuck!", Grandpa Joe said. "He IS stuck!", Sir Nicholas Watson exclaimed. Cameron could hear Owen calling for help from within the pipe, which was getting back up more and more with chocolate. "Can the pipe even take all that pressure?", Cody's father said. Sure enough, a couple leaks had started to form in the pipe, blasting chocolate almost clear across the river. Just as suddenly as Owen had stopped moving, he started moving again with an insane amount of velocity. "Wow, it's almost like a bullet fired from a pistol from Death Rage Part V!" Cody excitedly yelled. Owen was completely gone from sight now, presumably headed to the marshmallow room. Ms. Moore screamed and looked right at Chris.
"Help him! My son cannot be turned into marshmallow!", she said as she grabbed Chris by the shirt.
"Relax! Interns!", Chris called, and two of the small workers rushed to his side. "Take Ms. Moore down to the marshmallow room. You saw what happened with her boy Owen, so you must make sure he is not turned into marshmallow; It would be disgusting and no one would buy it. Take this stick and go poking around in all the vats down there", he said as he pulled out a long metal stick. "If you find something solid, moving, and fat, you should find him. Hurry, there's no time to waste!"
With that, the interns held out their hands, which Ms. Moore accepted. They started ushering her off to the marshmallow room as she looked back at Chris, with a panicked and confused look on her face. "Thank you for joining us! Adios! Auf wiedersehn!" Chris called as she was led through a door, which closed behind her.
"Is Owen going to be okay, Mr. Mclean?", Cameron asked.
"Yeah, he should be. I can guarantee everyone here that he will be ok. Do not worry about him, please!" Chris responded. "Now come on, we have so much time, so little to do!" Everyone looked at him, puzzled. "Oh, wait, other way around. Please, come quickly, on to the next room!"
"Wait, it seems like the interns are getting ready to...perform?", Cameron said.
"Oh, yeah, they like to do this. We better stay and watch, it'll be fun!", Chris said.
About a dozen or so interns stood in a line, and after a slight pause, they all began to sing:
Intern, wintern, now we shall sing
Listen to us and you might learn a thing
Intern, wintern, sweet sour and tart
One kid is gone but the rest will be smart
Eating candy is so much of a joy
But eat too much, and you'll end up like this boy
He was too greedy, now his journey is done
He is the victim number one
He will not have any fun
Intern, wintern, don't be like Owen
Be nice and share and you are sure to win
We hope you liked our little song
Hopefully we won't have too sing all...day...looooooong!
There was some scattered applause, but mostly confusion. "Come on, let's get on with our day! Wasn't that wonderful?", Chris asked the crowd as they began to move further down into the chocolate room. "I don't know, it sounded like a cheap rip off of a popular song", Courtney said as she popped her gum some more: In response, Chris shushed her. "Daddy, I want one of those interns. Make Chris give me one!", Heather demanded. "I heard that!", Chris said. "One bad little kid down, four good little kids left!"
So there you have it-chapter 8 has been finished! As I hope you can guess, the intern song is sung to the tune of the Oompa-Loompa songs from the 1971 movie, but I tried to put my own spin on it! Thanks for your feedback, and if there is anything else you would like to see, feel free to review my story! Thanks for reading