The heroes at Virginia Tech

Adrea Peyser:

POP! One second, Derek O'Dell was studying German in the second-floor Virginia Tech classroom.

The next, he whipped his head around, just in time to see a bullet tear through the skull of the young man sitting next to him.

Even then, Derek, who turned 20 on Friday, thought the whole thing must be a terrible prank.

"And then I saw the blood," he said quietly. It was pouring from the head of his classmate.

"And I knew it wasn't a joke."

Pop! Pop! The rest happened so fast. Without thinking, instinct took over, and Derek dove under his desk. It saved his life.

Derek did not recognize the shooter, nor did the monster seem to know any of the about 20 students in the class.

Pop! He simply walked in, and sprayed the classroom. He scored direct hits on the students in the front row. Derek sat in the second, a random choice.

"We heard people gurgling blood," he said. And he stopped talking for a moment.

...

As Derek watched blood flow along the classroom floor, it took him several minutes to realize that some of it was his. A bullet tore through his arm.

"He was just shooting randomly," Derek said. "My arm was hanging out."

The students in the front row got the worst. Each was shot in the head.

"So much blood."

Then the gunman calmly ambled out.

Derek jumped up from the floor. He was one of only about five or six students who were not hurt badly, or not shot at all.

With dead and dying students on the floor, Derek knew he had to act quickly.

The door opened inward to the classroom, so he wedged his foot under it so the killer could not get back inside....

...

They heard still more shots down the halls.

And as they crouched in fear, the madman came back.

He pushed against the door, getting it open an inch. But Derek shoved it back.

So he shot five or six rounds into the door. Thankfully, no one was hit.

Still holding the door shut, Derek fashioned a tourniquet with his belt to stop the bleeding in his arm.

Then, the gunman came back a third time.

"He could hear us talking," said Derek. But this time, he could not get the door open at all.

So he shot another round or two into the door and left. No one was hit.

In the next minutes, Derek heard police outside the door, and poked out his head.

"Put your hands up!" the cops shouted. They feared he was the gunman.

...

There is much more. What this story should make clear is that it is a mistake to ever give up and think there is nothing you can do. I wish Derek and his fellow students a speedy recovery.

Another real hero was a professor who survived the Holocaust who stepped in front of the killer to protect his students.

This is the story of another student who overcame his fear and helped block a door that prevented the killer from entering.