Voyage (Powerless Nation #2) by Ellisa Barr Page B

ominous. She was sure the bodies of the people who’d been killed in the fire were inside and she didn’t want to be there anymore, regardless of what Charity or her friends thought of her. She decided to wait out in the hallway. 
    She hoped Kade would want to wait out in the hallway with her, but he followed his friends into the morgue without so much as glancing at her.
    Sena stood alone by the partially open door and tried to ignore the fishy smell. Instead she thought about what had almost happened in the ice cream freezer; Kade McGuire had been about to kiss her.
    She touched her lips with her fingers and let herself imagine what it would have been like to feel his mouth on hers. She floated away in daydreams involving her and Kade and a field of daisies in the warm sunshine.
    Then she heard a sound that snapped her back to reality. The lock at the far end of the hall chirped, signaling that someone had opened the door and was heading their way.
    She stepped quickly into the morgue, trying to see through the gloom in the faint glow of her book light. 
    Someone jumped out from behind the door at her and grabbed her arm.
    She stifled a scream and almost burst into tears. “That wasn’t funny!” she said, nearly forgetting why she was there.
    “Aw, I’m sorry. I wish I could’ve seen your face though. Talk about the right time and the right place,” said the guy that liked Rocky Road ice cream.
    “Be quiet,” she hissed. “Someone’s coming.”
    “Probably getting lunch supplies,” said Charity quietly. “They won’t come in here.”
    “We should still hide,” said Sena. “Do you know how much trouble we’ll be in if we’re caught?” The thought of being caught breaking the rules made her stomach clench tightly.
    It was too dark for Sena to tell if Charity shrugged or rolled her eyes; she suspected both.
    “Fine,” Charity said. “We’ll hide. Come on guys, behind the counter.”
    In the back of the room was a long, low counter that acted as a divider between the morgue shelves and a large desk. It probably wasn’t much of a hiding place with the lights on, but in the complete dark Sena hoped it would be enough if someone came in.
    The whispers and giggles quieted immediately when they all heard voices outside the door of the morgue, and then the quick beep as the door was unlocked. Sena flicked off her light and willed herself to breathe silently. Being discovered would be worse than being in the dark for a few minutes, she tried to convince herself.
    She couldn’t make out the low-spoken male voices because her heart was pounding in her ears and practically out of her chest. Why had she come along with Charity? She should be reading in the library or watching the sea for dolphins. If they were caught in here, the captain would probably put them in the brig for breaking and entering.
    Sena tried to calm down so she could hear what was being said. When her brain finally sorted out what she was hearing she was dizzy with real fear. 
    The voices were speaking Korean.
    She tried to listen but could only pick out a few words, and none of them made any sense. 
    Why were the Koreans in here? They moved some of the rolling morgue shelves around, and then spoke quietly about… a plan? 
    Their voices were frustratingly soft. They only spoke for a few minutes and then they left.
    The high schoolers remained hidden behind the low counter, making sure they were really gone. Finally, Kade stood and whispered, “I don’t know what they were saying, but it didn’t sound friendly.”
    A few of the others murmured their agreement. Sena turned her light back on and looked around to try and figure out why the men had chosen the morgue for their covert meeting. Maybe something to do with the morgue shelves.
    Instead of having body drawers like the morgues she’d seen on TV, the ship’s morgue had shelves on one side of the room with pull-out pans for bodies. She was sorry to see so many silver body bags