Thursday, May 22, 2008

Common Heros: Lei Chusheng

Lei Chusheng, 15 years old. Lei is a senior of the Cifeng (Magnetic Peak) Middle School in Pengzhou. When the earthquake struck, he was in the classroom on the second floor, second room from the stairs. It took him fraction of a second to rush over 10 meters to the stairs, when he saw his faculty mentor rushing up from outside. Lei realized the teacher must be coming for other students. With little hesitation, he turned back.

He checked the first room, empty. Then he was back to his classroom, where he found 7 classmates were crouching along a wall, in fear and not knowing what to do. He shouted 'follow me, run', then led the school to safety outside. He counted, only 6 were with him. Not willing to left anyone behind, he rushed back to the falling building. He found the 7th classmate, a girl Ou Jing who was too frightened that she refused to move. The building was falling and Lei had no time to argue with Ou. So he carried Ou on his shoulders out of the classroom. Lei was exhausted. Fortunately, Ou collected herself and started walking down carefully. Lei followed Ou, but was blocked by a sudden fallen stair. He was able to come out from a tree outside a window, an escape route he identified while he was searching for other students. The building collapsed a couple of seconds after Lei and Ou reached outside, before they reached the playground.

Thanks to Lei, only one classmate in his class died of the earthquake.

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