THE MOMENT
Despite the blaring alarm, Angus had his doubts. He was manning a stretch of automated machinery that seemed to be working normally; but, everything was connected. The red flashing lights indicated there was a problem somewhere on the line. However, he wasn't the only one assigned to oversee a section, and all the others had the same emergency button that he did. His 'team' of robots was fine, and he was still new, wanting to err on the side of caution. Surely, it was someone else's problem, and it was up to them to press the button.
The alarms continued to wail on Angus' nerves, but he sat still and watched the robots do their job. They were packing meat as it came through the conveyor, and Angus was glad to be stationed toward the end of the process. By the time the pink chunks got to him the animal was unrecognizable and his area didn't smell nearly as bad as it likely did further up the line. It was almost relaxing on some level, watching the precise motions of the arms as they positioned and wrapped the cuts of meat and pushed them through to the next section. Not that he could relax at that moment with the alarm sounding.
Then, he became aware of two things independently that gave him a reason to at least stand up and move closer to the button with his hand hovering over it. The first thing he noticed was a distant rumbling ruckus cutting through the high-pitched buzzing. He'd only been there about a month; but, it was long enough to know that wasn't a normal sound. That caused him to stand up and approach the button. Then, one of his robots errored out because no meat came through the chute. It gave its own error alarm, notably different and quieter than the plant-wide alarm that was already demanding action from someone. The rumbling sounded louder, and after a few seconds, the conveyor was still coming through empty. All of his team throwing errors was enough for Angus to hover his hand over the button.
He didn't press it yet; but, just having his hand ready above it saved the day. It happened all at once. The wall tore open and in a panic, he slammed his hand down on the button a split second before he was impaled. Then, he blinked.
"That was a close one," he opened his eyes and found a smiling stranger. He was an ancient, wrinkled man wearing a black bowling shirt with the name 'Tim' monogrammed on the front.
"What happened!?" He looked around and the wall that had been destroyed by the stampeding herd was completely repaired, and his robots were ready to go with meat waiting on the conveyor; yet, everything was perfectly still.
"Unicorns broke free," Tim chuckled. "With their magic, it happens from time to time. It's the main reason for the buttons," he added. "It's kind of hard to stop them once they get going."
He wasn't at the front of the line; but, Angus knew what meat products they were producing. He remembered a quick warning about magical stampedes in one of his early training sessions; but, it was glossed over quickly. Still, that wasn't what he was asking.
"No, I mean... what happened?" he gestured at the undamaged wall. "They broke through... didn't they?" He clearly remembered staring down a golden horn charging right at him before he pressed the button. He looked over at his team standing still. They were posed in a 'ready' position, and it wasn't their usual rest mode, and the conveyor wasn't moving; but, somehow he got the impression nothing else was either. It was incredibly quiet with no sound of machinery. "Did.. the button stop time?" he asked.
"You could say that," Tim nodded. "The button calls me, and I stop time. Then, I just had to rewind it a bit to get the unicorns back in their pen. But, speaking of time, we need to start the line moving again. You good to go?"
"Yeah...," Angus nodded. He was mildly confused but extraordinarily glad to be alive.
"Great, I'm gonna start things up again. And, you totally saved us from a major mishap, so there'll be a small 'Thank You' bonus on your next check," Tim grinned. "I'll see you around." Angus blinked and Tim was gone. He opened his eyes to the sound of machinery moving again, and he looked over to make sure it was all running smoothly. Pink unicorn chunks were coming through as expected and his team bagged them up for distribution. He sighed in peace because everything was perfectly normal.