The hero: Rich Fierro fought in America’s war on terror. Then terror found him at home.

He drifted from the crowds to vape away his hangover, but strangers kept coming to him, wanting to touch him. People collapsed in his arms and wept. People hollered from a distance.

“Thank you,” they said, over and over, and he would try to reflect their gratitude back, because it was too much to absorb.

Read (or listen to an 84-minute audio version) Dan Zak's immersive and in-depth feature of veteran Rich Fierro, who fought the mass shooter at Club Q, in Colorado Springs, CO, in 2022.