As the group exited the Nut Room, Cameron was suddenly aware of how much the group had dwindled. Where there were once ten people on the tour, only four remained. It was kind of eerie. As they walked down the hallway, their footsteps echoed against the walls. Chris would periodically stop and start, looking down hallways and thinking to himself as he went along. They turned occasionally, passing rooms that ranged from janitor's closets to others where machines were chugging constantly. The group walked in relative silence, with Chris pointing out some rooms and tidbits about those rooms to them. At last, they made one last turn down a hallway, and they stood in front of…
An elevator. What seemed like a pair of plain, boring old elevator doors. "Hey, Chris, what's the big idea? We walk for like, 15 minutes, and this is what you have to show us? A crappy elevator?", Cody questioned.
"It's not just any ordinary elevator, trust me on this one. Just wait and see, because as your parents know, patience is a virtue. I'm surprised that hasn't been passed down to you!" Chris responded, although off to the side Cameron heard him mumble "Not that surprised, honestly." They stood around the doors awkwardly while Chris pushed the button and waited. And waited. And waited until finally the light above the elevator came on and the doors opened with a *ding*.
"All right, everyone, please come in! This is my elevator, but as I said, it's not any ordinary elevator...This here is the Great Glass Elevator!" Chris exclaimed as he motioned for everyone to step in. Cameron walked in and immediately gasped. The elevator was completely made of glass, with all the walls, floor and ceiling perfectly crystal clear and see-through. When he looked around, he couldn't see an elevator shaft outside; It seemed like they were positioned right above the Chocolate Room, still just as pristine and delectable as ever. Grandpa Joe stepped on and had the exact same reaction as Cameron. "Holy smokes, this really is something, isn't it, Cam? I betcha we could see the whole factory from here if we went high enough!" Chris clapped the old man on the back jovially. "Well, I'm glad you had that idea, because that is exactly what we could possibly do here! This elevator leads to-hey Cody, Cody's father, get in here! You're missing my spiel, and I don't redo my spiels! Also, didn't I tell you to put that phone away?" Cody rolled his eyes, put away his phone and entered the elevator. His father soon followed.
"So as I was saying, this is the Great Glass Elevator, and it is way more different than normal elevators. With normal elevators, you can only go up or down, right? Well, this baby can not only go up or down, but it can also go left, right, forward, backward, and diagonal! It can do everything! As you can see here, we are currently looking out over the Chocolate Room from above. What do you think?"
"If we're right back at the Chocolate Room, wouldn't it have made more sense to show us this at the beginning of the tour?" Cody asked.
"Maybe, but this thing would most likely not be able to hold all that weight. Gotta think about it from my perspective, bud." Chris replied. "It's also probably a good thing that fat kid was the first kid outta the tour, right? He would probably break the whole thing by himself." Cody asked; His father nudged him and shook his head, and Chris said "I'd be lying if that thought didn't appear in my head a couple of times, but read the room, man. Read the room...Anyway, you may be wondering to yourself, how do we go anywhere? I don't see any buttons on this thing!" Cameron looked around and couldn't find any buttons anywhere on the walls. It was definitely odd, for sure, but he also knew that Chris had some weird genius that would make this machine go. Almost on cue, Chris said "There are buttons on this machine, believe me, but in order to see them, you have to do this!" With that, he put both of his hands on one of the walls and held them there for about five seconds before removing them. With that, tiny lights started to flash and buttons seemed to be coming out of the walls, until all the walls of the elevator, ceiling included, were covered in buttons. It was quite something to behold.
"In this elevator, we have buttons that will take us to every room in the factory. We can even travel to the janitor's closet if we want to! I wouldn't recommend it, but it is an option. Go ahead, take a minute and look around. See if you can find any rooms that interest you." The four guests started intently staring at the walls. "Cameron, look! The S'mores room! Doesn't that sound fun?" Grandpa Joe asked. "Yeah, it really does!", Cameron replied. "And look at this one! The Flavor-Changing Jelly Bean room! And this one! The room with candied fruits!" Cameron and Grandpa Joe were busy geeking out over all the different rooms, Chris was twiddling his thumbs and looking at buttons from time to time, but Cody did not seem to be paying attention, playing on his phone instead. Chris cleared his throat and tapped Cody on the shoulder with his cane. The boy got the message and started looking at the buttons. Grandpa Joe and Cameron were still looking at buttons when Cody exclaimed "Hey, wait a minute, there's a Social Media room here? What the heck is that?"
Chris chuckled. "Glad you found that one, I didn't want you to miss that. Yes, we have a Social Media room that is conveniently located right next to our TV room." Cody gasped. "Both rooms deal with the same basic function: finding a way for Mclean Chocolates to be broadcast, livestreamed, and distributed all around the world! We are always innovating in that room, and we have some pretty nifty little processes taking place in that room." For what seemed like the first time in the tour, Cody had a smile on his face. "With that all said, I think it's time I surrender control of this tour for just a minute. You get to pick the next room we go to! It can be any one of these buttons, there are no limits! So what'll it be?" Chris proclaimed. Cameron was excited: They could go to any one of these rooms! There were so many to choose from; it was going to be difficult to pick just one room to visit. Would it be the S'mores Room? Or perhaps it would be the Licorice Room? But then again, the Big Rock Candy Mountain Room looked interesting as well! "Grandpa, which room do you think we should go to? Personally, I've got it down between-hey, what's going on?" Cameron said before he was interrupted by a jolt. "Is the elevator moving?" Grandpa Joe asked.
The elevator was moving. Cameron and Grandpa Joe looked at each other with confusion before looking at Chris, who looked surprised as well. They then looked over at Cody and his father: Cody was still smiling, and one button was lit up, indicating it had been pushed. To the surprise of no one, it was the TV room. "Cody, you could've at least asked the others if they wanted to go to that room! Don't you think that was a little selfish?", asked Cody's father. Cody rolled his eyes and shrugged. Cameron was upset but not entirely surprised: this whole tour, the other kids had put themselves before him. Why should right now be any different?
The elevator started gaining speed as it flew up in the air. When it reached a certain height, it stopped and everyone took a deep breath to collect their bearings. Then the elevator shot to the right, making Cameron and Grandpa Joe stumble against the walls. Chris stood perfectly still: he must either have amazing balance, or he's done this very often, Cameron thought. The whole group noticed that Chris was strangely silent throughout the elevator ride. The elevator continued to move forward at great speed before zigging, zagging, and turning every which way. Up, down, left, right, you name it: the elevator was all over the place. The factory seemed just like a blur of brightly colored rooms. Occasionally, Cameron caught the figure of an intern, but he couldn't be sure. After a while, everyone had become used to being in the elevator, except for Cody's father, who was looking a little sick. "How much longer do we have to be in this thing? I'm feeling quite nauseous!", he asked Chris. "Oh, not too much longer. Blame Cody, he chose one of the farthest rooms away for us to go to!" was Chris' reply. "Well, maybe you shouldn't have pointed the room out to-whaaagh!", Cody retorted before the sudden stop of the elevator propelled him forward and onto the floor. "Looks like we're here! Watch the step when you get off" Chris instructed as he opened the doors into a room that was painted bright white from floor to ceiling. Interns were scampering around the large room, but they were wearing what seemed like hazmat suits and thick goggles. "Um, Chris, should we be worried about anything? Like the hazmat suits?" Grandpa Joe asked.
"Not at all, man! Although I must ask you all to put these goggles on, this room can cause temporary blindness, on account of how bright it gets. But you aren't in any danger, trust me!" Chris responded, collecting four pairs of goggles handed to him by a nearby intern. The group put them on, and now they could see things they had missed before, such as an enormous TV screen in the corner of the room, complete with a similarly giant couch and remote in front of it. Machines lined the walls of the room, blinking and beeping every few seconds. Interns had tablets in their hands, on which they were tapping away and doing work. However, on the floor at the center of the room was a large metal platform, raising about a foot off the ground. It was circular in shape. Above it hung what looked like a large satellite dish that was making a slight buzzing sound. "Welcome everyone, to the TV Room! As I previously mentioned, here is where we broadcast our chocolate to the world! Due to the rise of cell phones and the Internet, we have a Social Media division in here as well, tasked with creating the next huge Mclean advertisement. Although I'm not too into what the kids are into these days, we can still reach them! How, you may ask? Why, through their taste buds, of course!"
"What the heck does that mean? How can you advertise to people with their taste buds?" asked Cody. "It's simple, really!" Chris answered. "Alright, guys, wheel it out!" he called to many interns. Immediately, six or seven interns rushed to a side room and brought out what looked like a giant video camera. Not the handheld kind, but the bulky one directors use to shoot a film with. "This, my friends, is the Mclean Chocolate Transmogrifier!"
Hey, sorry for the delay, guys! I ran into a particularly nasty case of writer's block recently, but the chapter is finished! As always, please feel free to review and critique, and thanks for your patience!
TUS