I know I'm sounding kind of Peter Molydeux here, but here's the concrete game idea:
You play the teacher in a small school in an area frequently under attack in some kind of war. Attacks come with only a short warning, and may be airstrikes, mortar attacks, tanks, or infantry shooting one another in the streets outside. The view is side-on: you can see the classrooms, the roads outside, and the insides of the buildings nearby.
Whenever an attack occurs, you have to keep the children safe. This means positioning them away from sources of harm such as windows or thin walls - or in the case of an airstrike, getting them away from the likely target.
The children are very scared, of course, so you have to go up close to them and tell them to follow you to reposition them. You can also pick them up and carry them, but you can only carry one child, and you move more slowly.
Even when children are not hit and injured, the closer they are to incoming munitions, the more likely they are to freeze up or panic. Moreover, the ceilings and walls can collapse, trapping you or the children.
There is, of course, no way to shoot back. The only way through is to keep moving, keep your charges safe, and hope for a swift end to the war.