This was inspired by Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift. This is not a crossover with The Hunger Games. If there are similiarities, it's a coincidence because I've only read the first few pages. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Big time Rush or Taylor Swift's song, only my OCs and the plot.

I sat in our small living room, reading my book in silence as the single lamp threw an eerie orange glow over the room. The outside of the book was coated in black paint and I had gone through the pages and crossed out the title wherever I found it. You see, the book I was reading was illegal. Nine years ago we were ordered to destroy all copies because we were forbidden to read about uprisings, but I couldn't do that. So I hid it, only bringing it out when I knew I couldn't be caught reading it. As my eyes scanned over the words I knew so well, I thought back to before all of this happened. Back when the world was not so violent and terrifying, and was actually a nice place to live.

I ran through the lobby of the Palm Woods, occasionally daring a glance back over my shoulder. I shrieked when I saw Kendall right behind me. I tried to run faster, but looking back cost me a few precious seconds and before I knew it I felt his arms around my waist, easily lifting my small body off the floor.

"Kendall, put me down right now. You know I don't like being off the ground," I squealed through my laughter.

He laughed and I felt it vibrate through his chest. "Not a chance. It took me all morning to catch you. I'm not about to let you go." He removed one arm from my waist to reach down and pull my legs up, carrying me bridal-style. I placed my arms around his neck and pulled him down so I could kiss him. I smiled against his lips when I felt the same shock run through my body, giving me goose bumps everywhere. It never failed; every time I kissed him I felt the same.

Pulling back, Kendall smiled before giving me a tiny kiss on my nose. He knew I would giggle; I always did when he kissed my nose like that. He carried me back out to the pool area and set me down in the chair I had been sitting in until he had found me and threatened to throw me in the pool. I knew he wouldn't actually do it, but I'd run anyways.

Logan, who was sitting in the chair next to me, looked over and smiled. "Take it you didn't get very far huh?"

I shook my head and gave Kendall a light shove as he sat down by my legs. "Nope, he caught me by the vending machine."

"You shouldn't have run," Kendall retorted.

"You shouldn't have threatened to throw me in the pool."

"You know I would never do that."

"Well, I'm paranoid sometimes. You are privy to that knowledge."

He just smiled and pulled me into his lap, playfully poking my sides. I pushed his fingers away but settled against him, and he spread my dark hair over his shoulder. I smiled and looked back at Logan. "Where're James and Carlos? Don't they usually hang around here this time of day?"

"They're at the park. James is trying to find a date to take to the new movie tonight and I think Carlos is trying to catch a squirrel."

Both Kendall and I looked at him confused. "Come again?" he asked.

Logan shrugged his shoulders. "All I know is that he told me he was going to the park to look for a squirrel, but he had a bag full of nuts and a box with him."

"And why would Carlos want to catch a squirrel," I asked, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"C.J., over the years I have learned that it's simply easier to not question Carlos's actions, mainly because you do not want to know the reasoning behind them."

I had to agree with that. I leaned back against Kendall, when I heard something. I couldn't quite place what it was, but I knew it wasn't in my head. It started as a low buzzing, but slowly increased in volume. I turned to the sky, thinking it was a low flying aircraft, but not even a cloud floated by. Then I turned to Kendall. "Do you hear that?"

He was looking at the sky and then turned his gaze to the horizon. "Yeah I do, what is that?" Logan looked around too. The buzzing continued to grow louder, until I could feel the vibrations on my skin. I looked around frantically, trying to find the source, but ultimately failing. Then it increased to such a volume that I had to cover my ears, as did Kendall and Logan.

Suddenly a deafening explosion came from close by, the force throwing everyone to the ground. I landed on the ground harshly, Kendall landing next to me. I curled up as I felt the extreme heat fly over us, certain I felt the hairs on my arm singe away. I shut my eyes tight, waiting for the roaring, heat, smoke, and fear to end.

Soon, everything ended but the fear. Of course, that escalated. I pushed myself up on shaking arms, looking up to see the sun had been blacked out with a thick layer of ash and smoke. I gasped, and immediately started coughing as the pollutants entered my airways. The trees and other plants were on fire, red hot embers falling from the crumbling leaves and onto people, causing them to scream in pain.

The screams.

They were coming from everywhere, all directions. Some were in pain, some in sorrow, but most were in fear. I blinked my eyes a few times to clear away the fog to see everyone running in any direction they could. Several people ran into each other and fell into the pool, which was now filled with smoldering debris. I looked down at my arms to find that the hairs had indeed singed off, leaving my skin red and burning with pain.

Remembering Kendall and Logan, I quickly looked around and found Logan real fast. He was lying on the ground like I had been. He held his upper arm, the skin around his hand turning an angry red, but other than that he looked just fine. I turned around to find Kendall lying behind me. His face was covered in soot and sweat. The sleeves of his blue plaid shirt were glowing in tiny bright orange circles at the edges so I quickly slapped them to put the embers out. He held his head in his hand as he pushed himself up next to me, eyes closed tightly.

I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?" I called out loud enough so he could hear me.

He shook his head quickly and looked at me, nodding. "Yeah I'm good. Where's Logan?"

"He's right over there." I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. Kendall stood up as quickly as he could and rushed over to his friend. I followed once I could stand.

"Logan, what's wrong with your arm?" I heard Kendall ask. Logan's face twisted into a pained grimace as he took his hand away from his arm and I gasped at the sight. A long ragged burn stained his pale skin. The center was the reddest red I had ever seen and it was shining gruesomely. But the edges were dark and flaky. I held back a gag when I realized that I was seeing that his skin had been burnt to a crisp around the edges.

Kendall looped his arm around Logan's shoulders and helped the smaller boy stand. Logan looked around like he was really seeing what was going on around us. "What happened?"

"I think it was an explosion," I shouted, the deafening roar only growing louder. "Did you see where it came from?" The question was directed to Kendall.

"Um, I think it came from over…" he trailed off as he turned in the direction the explosion came from. His eyes grew wide and even though his face was filthy, I could see the color drain from his face. He looked terrified and that only made me even more scared.

"Kendall, what is it?"

He turned to me, looking genuinely horrified. "I think it came from Palm Woods Park."

Eleven years later the world had turned into one giant battlefield. All the nations had gone to war with each other, but this war was different. I remembered from history class, soldiers exercised restraint when faced with women and children. But with this war, no one cared who got caught in the crossfire. New rules were put into place that had unspeakable punishments so we had no choice but to obey the Higher Command, our new government that seemed more like a dictatorship to me.

The bomb had triggered the war. It had been dropped on the park, immediately turning what was a beautiful place to play into a bed of flames. We never knew why it was dropped there. There were no survivors, and that hit Kendall and Logan really hard. They were never the same after that.

But then again, no one was because of the draft.

A new army had to be formed into order to handle the ever present threat of danger. Every person between the ages of fifteen and twenty were drafted and trained to be warriors. We were trained to forget all our emotions, only focus on destroying the enemy. A warrior could not leave the army unless their health was compromised or the Higher Command deemed they couldn't be trusted on the frontline.

That was how I was sitting in my living room. I had been a great warrior, one of the best, but when I was eighteen I discovered I was pregnant. Kendall and I had stayed together. The Higher Command immediately destroyed my draft and put the health information into my file so I couldn't be drafted again. That was one rule: it was forbidden to draft a mother, because they were needed to stay home and raise new warriors. Kendall and I married once I was out.

I gave birth to a son, Kyle Jeffery Knight. He was the spitting image of Kendall: dirty blonde locks darkened slightly from me, green eyes, and when he smiled he had the same dimples. It was not easy to raise a son when all he wanted was his father there. Kendall was not allowed to stay home, he had to keep fighting. Every night he would come home looking so worn out it amazed me that he could stand, but when little Kyle would run up to him his face would light up and his energy would come back so he could play with his son.

Five years later I became pregnant again, and this time I birthed a daughter. We named her Zylie Mae. Zylie looked more like me with her bone structure, but her hair was a lighter brown and she had her father's eyes too. Zylie didn't understand what was going on with the world just yet only that it wasn't safe for her to go outside without Kendall or myself with her. I tried to keep it that way; I wanted her to keep her innocence as long as possible. Kyle had learned about the war when he was only five, and he tried to get used to taking care of me and his sister once he knew the odds of his father coming home.

The door opened and I instinctually threw my book under my chair, only to find the action unnecessary when I saw Kendall come in. He closed the door and leaned his head back against it. Even from my distance, I saw tears stream down his face.

Alarmed, I jumped up and hurried over to him, my hands on his chest. His head fell to my shoulder and he started crying, soaking the thin fabric of my shirt. I ran my fingers through his hair, trying to comfort him. All the while, I racked my brain to find a reason for this behavior. Kendall had seen an entire fleet of warriors be cut open and their entrails pulled out and he hadn't even blinked. What could have happened to cause him to break like this?

Suddenly, Kendall's legs gave out and he collapsed against me. If I had still been a warrior, I would have been able to hold him up with no problem. But it had been ten years since I last fought and I no longer possessed the same strength. Still keeping my arms around him, I crouched down on the floor next to him, even more worried now.

Drawing a deep breath, Kendall looked up at me. His eyes were laced with such an extreme sorrow that I hadn't seen on his face before. Kendall was trained by the same officers as I was, and they were the best. He had become a master at locking away his emotions until he couldn't feel them anymore, showing only a blank expression. I knew that what happened had to be horrible for him to forget that training.

"Where are the children?" he asked quickly, voice thick with emotion.

"They are asleep. I put them to bed an hour ago. Kyle wanted to wait up for you, but I convinced him to go to sleep. Kendall, what happened?" I tried to maintain my composure, but I knew he could hear the alarm in my voice.

He shook his head and cast his eyes downward, covering them with his hand as he took a shuddery breath. "We were planning on invading an enemy base. We were supposed to hold off anyone in there as a diversion while the others cut around and planted explosives. It should have gone down perfectly, but they were expecting us. They had tapped our communications. We never even got close to the gate before they shot us down. Logan was running alongside me, and he got shot." Kendall tried to take another breath, but I could tell how much trouble he was having. "He was dead before he even hit the ground." Then he broke down and sobbed.

I felt tears slipping down my own cheeks as he laid his head against my chest. He held fast to my midsection, using me as support. I forced myself to hold my sobs back, even though it felt like my insides were being twisted, torn, and ripped apart. Not just from my sorrow over losing Logan, who had been a dear friend of mine as well as Kendall's, but also from the overwhelming amount of pity I felt for my husband. How much torment could he go through? He lost James and Carlos in the first bombing, his mother and sister died in another bombing shortly after, and he just lost his last best friend. I always knew Kendall was strong, but I feared that this would be his breaking point.

As he continued to cry, I understood why he asked me where the children were. Logan had been an uncle to Kyle and Zylie, extremely close to them. My heart dropped when I thought about telling them, I knew they wouldn't take it well.

Kendall pulled back and hastily wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "I had to be dragged away from his body. I almost got hit with a grenade. The Higher Command said they couldn't risk having me on the frontline because I could put the entire fleet in danger. My draft was destroyed. I'm not a warrior anymore C.J."

I sighed, but it wasn't completely in relief. The Higher Command claimed they didn't have the money to spare to properly debrief the warriors, when we all knew they had more than enough. I had never been debriefed when I left, so it took me an agonizingly long time to change my mindset so I could be a mother. I knew that Kendall would need not only my support, but our children's support as well. They could bring a smile to his face no matter what, so he would need them.

"I met up with Mr. Rollins on the way home. He offered me a small job on his farm until I can take the workplace, so we'll have a small amount of money for food, but I don't think it'll be enough for everything," Kendall said sadly.

I took his hands and helped him stand, lightly stroking his cheek. "We'll make it work Kendall, we always do. It gets rough, but we've pulled through before." His eyes shone through the pain and for a second he looked happy. I gave him a small smile, praying it was enough to give him hope.

Then a loud boom echoed through our small house, throwing me into his arms. The battles never ended and even though we lived a few miles away from the nearest blast zone, the fighting still reached us. But there was something different about that boom, it echoed louder than it should have.

Kendall looked down at me, alarm in his face. "Did you open a curtain?"

I shook my head quickly. "No, I never open them anymore. The risk is becoming too great." When planes would fly overhead at night, they targeted any house where they could see something in the window. Whether it was a single candle or a slight blur of a face, the house was targeted. This threat gnawed on my nerves until I kept the curtains drawn all day and night, blocking any source of light.

Realization dawned on Kendall's face and I quickly understood. If I hadn't opened a curtain, the children must have.

We took off in a dead run to their room. I threw the door open to find the curtains on the window wide open, Kyle and Zylie pressed up to it. Beyond the glass and through the trees, bright orange flames were visible, angrily consuming whatever they could. Huge plumes of smoke billowed up, gray poles against the black sky. The buzzing of planes could be heard as they flew over us, trying to locate a target.

I ran into the room and pushed the children away from the window, snapping the dark curtains shut. I turned quickly and gathered Zylie in my arms, the tiny five year old shaking with fear. I heard a small whimpering behind me and when I turned I saw Kendall holding Kyle, now ten.

I sat down on Zylie's bed, rubbing her back soothingly. "Zylie, I told you to never open the curtains. It's too dangerous."

"Don't be mad at me Mama. I just wanted to see what the colors were," she spoke with a shaky voice and I sighed. When Zylie's voice became shaky, she would start crying soon. I held her closer and kissed her hair.

"She saw the glow from the fires behind them. I told her not to open them but she was curious. I tried to close them but then I looked outside too," Kyle confessed from where he sat on his bed with his father. Kendall ruffled his hair and pulled him closer.

"We're not mad at you two," Kendall said in a calm voice. "But you can't open the curtains anymore alright? It's just too dangerous."

Zylie shifted in my arms so she could look at Kendall. "We won't Daddy. I promise. That was really scary." She buried her small face into my hair and cried. I gently shushed her and tightened my arms around her. I shook my head, hating the situation. Our children shouldn't be forced to stay inside a dark house with the curtains drawn because if they stepped outside they could be hurt. They should be free to run around and play.

Zylie sniffled and stopped crying, still huddled on my lap. I placed her under the blankets, smoothing her hair back and kissing her forehead. She looked up at me, her green eyes wide. "Mama, will you sing to me?"

"Will you sing to me too Dad?" I looked over at Kyle's bed and saw that Kendall had tucked him in too.

Kendall looked at me with a very tiny smile. I smiled back at him, hearing the silent conversation between us. For Kendall, singing was one thing that hadn't changed. I would find him singing to himself when he was upset, or when he simply needed something familiar to do. It brought him a comfort that I knew he needed sometimes. It also reminded him that there was a time when the war hadn't been going on. That there had been a time of peace.

I looked back down at Zylie, still smiling. "Of course honey. We'll sing to both of you." Zylie moved over so I could lie down next to her. There was barely enough room for both of us on the tiny bed, but I merely put one leg on the floor to hold myself up.

Softly, I started singing their favorite lullaby. Kendall picked up quickly, our voices matching in pitch. Zylie curled into my side, her small fists tightly gripping my shirt. After a moment, her eyes slid closed. Still singing, I propped myself up on my elbow to look over at the other bed.

Kyle looked like he had already fallen asleep. Kendall sat next to him, his fingers in Kyle's hair. He looked over at me and I knew we were thinking the same thing. How much longer could we keep our children safe? In only five years, Kyle would be drafted. He'd be forced to go out every day and fight, and every day the chance of him returning home would dwindle. But who's to say that he would even live to be drafted? What if the fires reached our house or a bomb got caught in the wind and landed on us? Would the threat ever go away?

"Just close your eyes, you'll be alright. Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound," Kendall and I finished. The even breathing of our sleeping children met our ears. I carefully released Zylie's hold on my shirt so I could stand up and walk out of their room with Kendall. I silently closed the door and turned to Kendall. The question in his eyes spoke to me and I shook my head, for I didn't know the answer.

Would we really be safe and sound in the morning?

Not counting my one multi-chapter story, this is the longest thing I've ever written. I know that all my one-shots are inspired by songs, but sometimes songs tell the best stories and it gets my imagination going. Hope you liked it.

Ciao,

Kris