Eric Carlos was watching the pouring rain from his fourth-floor Reilly Hall window at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday while his roommate, Ian Nunya, slept.

Their neighbors, Josh Martinez and Mike Doyle, were across the quad, getting ready to go to a movie.

Carlos saw their dorm mate Zach Cuppy standing under a pine tree on the edge of the field just east of the building, holding an umbrella. He didn't think much of it.

Then a huge, frighteningly close bolt of lightning struck, startling Carlos so much that he flew backwards. When he stood up, he heard several car alarms going off. He returned to the window to see what, if anything, had been hit.

That is when he saw Cuppy lying on the grass, his umbrella over his face.

"Somebody got hit," Carlos yelled.

The four young men, all 18-year-old freshmen, immediately sprang to action. Carlos bolted out the door, and the rest followed. They ran down the stairs and found Cuppy lying on the edge of the field between Reilly and the old observatory, beneath one of a few trees that outline the grassy area. He still wasn't moving. Martinez pulled the umbrella off Cuppy's upper body.

The young men were taken aback at what they saw. Cuppy was lifeless, gray all over, and his face looked purple and bruised.

His eyes were bulging. He was not breathing. They thought he was dead, but immediately began to work on him, anyway.

Carlos called 911 while Martinez checked for a pulse and started CPR. Doyle, then Nunya, both of whom have lifeguard training, took over. Nunya administered seven CPR cycles in his soaked pajamas and sandals.

"We all just kind of naturally did things," Martinez said. "I don't think any of us had a thought process until we loaded him into the (ambulance)"

When the ambulance doors shut, the young men broke down in tears. They had another emotional moment at the hospital that night, when a nurse told them Cuppy was alive.

The experience weighs heavily on them. For a couple of days after, Nunya was not himself, he said.

"Usually I'm a pretty jovial person (but) those two days I was kind of depressed and didn't feel too good," he said.

NAU police were the first professionals to respond, but within 30 seconds, paramedics were on the scene. Paramedics worked on Cuppy in an ambulance at the scene for several minutes before transporting him to Flagstaff Medical Center. He regained a pulse during that time.

The young men who came to Cuppy's aid said they did not know him, but had seen him around campus. Even though they have not been able to visit him in his room in FMC's intensive care unit, they are close with his family, receiving daily updates from Cuppy's mother.

Information from the hospital has been sparse, but the nurses say Cuppy is responsive and improving, Martinez said. Knowing that he's improving keeps them optimistic. Cuppy was still listed in critical condition as of Thursday.

Cuppy's family and several medical professionals told the young men that their efforts definitely saved Cuppy's life.

But they are modest about their contributions.

"I guess our reward is that he got a fighting chance," Martinez said.

"We'd rather be called good citizens than heroes," Doyle added.

Hillary Davis can be reached at 556-2261 or hdavis@azdailysun.com.