The Orphans Series Vol. 1: The Orphans by M. Evans

of that battery for the rest of the weekend, or you're going to be off the grid completely, hope you guys are having fun, I'm out with Tina and Greg wish you were here. "             
                  He heard in the distance the loud weekly city tornado sirens going off. Thinking it must be noon, he laughed because it was the most excitement that happened on Saturdays. He read his phone again and the "wish you were here" made his day. He sat back smiling and shot one last message out, saying: " Hey maybe we can hang out Sunday evening depending on when we get out of the woods. "
                  After listening to nearly all his music, Shaun looked down at his watch. It had been hours--the time was 5pm. He peeked around the corner of the tree being sure to be quick about it. He didn't want a deer running this way and having his dad blow it to kingdom come. Of course he knew sharp shooter Fox wasn't going to miss and hit his only son, but he didn't want to take a chance. He decided to wait.
                  Eventually Frank stopped thinking, wiped a few tears convinced that if his late wife knew he had a chance to be happy and he could help Shaun by having a mother that she would be fine with him moving on. He went through a grieving period over not being there for her, but was still reminded by Shaun anytime they got into a verbal battle             
                  Frank looked at the sun getting ready to set for the evening and knew that by the time they got back to the cabin that it would be dark. There were mountain lions rumored to roam the hills here. He knew the shotgun would take one out, but didn't want to think about what would happen if one came up from behind or jumped out of a tree. There'd be no way for Shaun to be ready for something like that. He walked up the path. "Hey, killer! You ready to go get something to eat? I'm starved! I should have thrown some snacks in my pack for lunch! I don't know what I was thinking ... I guess I was just too excited to get out here."
                  Shaun looked up at the movement in his peripheral vision and saw his dad's mouth moving. He pulled out his ear buds. "Huh?"             
                  His dad couldn't give him a hard time. He hadn't been paying attention to anything else all day but the thoughts of Marie and Karen, trying to decide how he wanted to let Shaun know exactly what he was thinking, and talk about the changes which were going to be coming soon. He repeated, "You ready to go get something to eat? We better get back before it gets dark. No reason to break out flashlights for a mile walk back if we can avoid it."             
                  Shaun pushed up, grabbed his gun from resting against the tree, and they started their walk back. "I didn't see anything but squirrels and birds all day," he commented. Did you see any when you were up here last month scouting and bringing up supplies?"
                  His dad smiled at how observant his son was even though he pretended how little he really cared. "Well I saw this deer highway, but I didn't see any actual deer.... But where there are tracks you know there's deer! We just need to be patient. We still have Sunday and I'm feeling a little ill, so if we need to then maybe we should stick it out for Monday."
                  "Wait!" Shaun managed, startled. "You're purposely going to miss work? Wouldn't that go against, like, your personal honor code or something?"
                  Frank shook his head. "I'll find a way to sleep at night, I'm pretty sure. I've put some overtime in."              
                  Shaun nodded and sarcastically added, "I have a feeling the Principal would say that you're full of it, and there's a good chance they'd have a heart attack if you mentioned a teenager was using a firearm ...