Originally posted: http://nicolenowlen.com/mystory.htm
Can be referenced at: http://web.archive.org/web/20031203123636/http://www.nicolenowlen.com/chloeandceline.htm

On the morning of April 20, I had just gotten out of my geometry class, and decided to go to the library to work on my homework. I stopped at the drinking fountain first to fill up my water bottle, and proceeded inside to find a table. I sat down near the front door, and took out my books.

At about 11:20am, a girl came running down the hall and into the library screaming, “Help! Help! There are some people downstairs with guns!” She proceeded to find one of the librarians to call 911, and we just sat at our tables just all looking at each other. I personally thought it was a senior prank to scare all of us, and thought nothing of it. A few seconds later, a boy came in with a gunshot wound to his leg. I still then thought it was a prank to because you couldn’t see if he leg was hurt or not. A teacher or librarian was on the phone with the police and was telling us to get under the tables in case they came in. She was very frantic on the phone, and kept yelling at us, which got me worrying that this wasn’t a joke.

Then we heard guns going off in the cafeteria below us, and people screaming and running. The screaming later stopped, and then they were setting off bombs or explosives below us. The whole building shook, and I was having a real hard time keeping myself calm. During all of this somehow the fire alarm came on, and it had a real high shrill ringing to it. I keep looking at other people around me, when I saw one of the gunmen walk by a window by the door. He had on a black trenchcoat, black hat, and blonde curly hair that hung down to his chin. I later found out that this was Dylan Klebold.

I started whispering to the guy at the table next to me what I had just seen go past the window. I again looked around and didn’t like the table I was under because the way it was in trajectory to the door, you could easily see me under the table. I whispered again to the guy next to me if I could hide with him because his table was at a different angle to the door, and you wouldn’t see us under the table. He motioned for me to come over, and I crawled on the floor, got up against one of the sides under the table, and we pulled the chairs in around us to form a barrier.

As he sat across from me, the first thing he did was take a hold of my hand, and we just sat quietly… hoping they wouldn’t come in. A few minutes passed, and in they came. The first thing they told us was for everyone to get out. No one moved. I mean… what do you do? Attempt to get up and walk out and get shot in the back, or do you wait to get shot while you’re cornered under a table? I don’t remember too much of what was said in the library because I was just holding his hand and looking at him the whole time. What few things I do remember are that they asked a group of girls huddled under a table near us if they believed in god. You could hear them crying saying yes and no, and then shooting.

Then we saw black combat boots next to our table, and then a gun was pointed under it, and was fired two times. We didn’t scream, but moved away as far as we could. The table was next to one of the shelves of books built into the wall, so you could still sort of hide on the other side, but still be safe under the table. I stayed part way under the table, and the boy came out from under it. That is when they shot him again, and I thought he had died because his leg was touching mine, and you could feel him start to shake like a seizure. I then sat as still as I could… hoping he would think I was dead. He then asked me, “Are you still breathing?” I didn’t say anything except, but I just laid down sort of out of instinct. I laid down and closed my eyes, hoping he would think I was dead, and wouldn’t shoot me anymore. I then blacked out. I didn’t dream or see my life flash before my eyes, but it was a quiet black.

I must have been out for only a few minutes when I woke up. It took me a bit to figure out where I was, then I sat real still and listened to see if they were still in the room. They were gone. I lifted up my shirt to see where I was hurt, and I had two bloody patches on the stomach area. I still really couldn’t believe what had happened to me, and I didn’t even hurt. I could hear other people getting up so I started yelling for help. I was afraid to move because I thought it would hurt myself worse, but I took that chance and had to get up by myself. A girl saw me and she waited for me to get to her.

We slowly moved, and I just followed them thinking they knew where a back door was. The greatest thing I saw in the world was that propped open back door, and the sunshine streaming in. We went up to the door, and could see a cop car in the grass, and they started yelling at us to run to them. Behind the car were other kids from the library. Some were unhurt and some were close to dying. We had to wait there for another cop car to come get us, and get us some medical attention. While waiting we saw one of the shooters on the roof of the school sort of patrolling the area from up top.

More cops came, and took us back farther from the building, behind a cement storage building. We waited there a while longer before some more cops came to take us where an ambulance could help us. I remember one girl was missing a golfball size chunk of her shoulder, and it was bleeding like crazy. They took us down the bike path through the park, and out one of the entrances where bikers and walkers can enter the park. I later had to wait for paramedics to come to help people worse hurt than I was.

I laid in the grass for maybe a half-hour while a guy talked to me the whole time. You could see T.V. cameras there already filming injured because we had gotten out less than a half-hour after it happened. We were the first images of the wounded. When my ambulance finally came they took me to a hospital about 20 miles away because all of the other closer ones were starting to fill up.  1