Tales of Horror, Shock and Heroism from Fort Hood Shootings

Pfc. Marquest Smith, who is heading to Afghanistan in January, was filling out medical paperwork about his bee-sting allergy when he heard a loud popping noise.

Moans followed, then the sudden, urgent shout of "Gun!"

Smith poked his head over the cubicle's partition and saw an extraordinary sight: An Army officer with two guns, firing into the crowded room.

The 21-year-old Fort Worth native quickly grabbed the civilian worker who'd been helping with his paperwork and forced her under the desk. He lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.

After the shooter stopped to reload, Smith made a run for it. Pushing two other soldiers in front of him, he made it out of the Soldier Readiness Processing center — only to plunge into the building twice more to help the wounded.

Smith had survived the worst mass shooting on an American military base: a rampage of more than 100 shots that left 13 dead and more than two dozen wounded, including the alleged shooter, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.