'I feel guilty': Survivors of San Bernardino recall attack

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- Survivors of the San Bernardino terror attack recalled the horrors they faced as the shooting's one-year anniversary approached.

For most people who were inside the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2, 2015, it's a place of unthinkable violence.

"What happened in that room is inhuman," survivor Ray Britain said. "It was very hard to see people shot and it was very indiscriminate on who was hit. There was a line of people when I watched a handful go down and others remain standing."

"The person sitting to the left of me died," survivor Sally Cardinale recalled. "The person who was sitting across the table from me died."

Britain and Cardinale, both San Bernardino County administrators, were inside the IRC when Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik opened fire during a holiday party.

"I remember just a rainbow of empty shell casings just floating down," Britain described. "At one point he released his magazine and I remember that just floating to the ground."

"I got up and I ran," he continued.

By the time the rampage was over 14 people were killed and 22 were injured.

For the survivors, the sights and sounds of that deadly day play on a sporadic loop inside their heads every day.

"I just don't understand it," Cardinale, who took cover in the bathroom, said. "I feel guilty. I feel like if I maybe had been in there I could have done something. It's just such a helpless and vulnerable feeling."

"Unfortunately there are things that we just see on a regular basis," Britain said. "It happens more now when everything gets quiet, like when you go to bed."

With memorial services planned for the anniversary of the attack, Cardinale said she was unsure if she'd participate, while Britain said he wouldn't be attending because he wasn't ready to face the tragedy in that capacity yet.