Texas ? Unarmed soldiers caught up in a deadly shooting rampage as they prepared to deploy from Fort Hood reacted as though they’d already reached a combat zone, playing dead to avoid gunfire and refusing to leave fallen comrades behind, according to testimony Thursday at a military hearing.

Most took just moments to realize the chaos of gunfire, smoke and a weapon’s laser flashing across walls and bodies was not a drill, and their survival instincts and training kicked in.

“I laid back down on the ground and played dead,” Spc. Alan Carroll, who was shot several times in the Nov. 5 attack, testified via video link from Kandahar, Afghanistan. “I tried to get up again and was shot again in the leg. I was holding my breath, trying not to move. … If I was moving, I thought he would come to me.”

The Article 32 hearing will determine whether Maj. Nidal Hasan, who has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, should stand trial. Prosecutors have not said whether they would seek the death penalty.