Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age.


AN: And here's the next chapter...thanks to IceAge Mutant for reviewing!


Chapter 2:
"I'm Ellie. This is Manny. These are my twin brothers, Eddie and Crash. And this is Diego." Ellie looked in astonishment at the man in front of them as she spoke. He was wearing a tattered set of clothes that Ellie recognised was much like their own sets of hospital patient clothes. He was holding onto a sharpened bone.

The mad man nodded, looking at them.

"What's your name?"

"Buck." The man seemed pleased. "Short for Buckminster, long for Buh."

"Fascinating." Diego drawled, not at all interested.

"What's your problem?" Buck asked. Diego turned around, eyebrow raised. There was a dangerous glint in his eye that Manny recognised and feared. "Why're you in an asylum?"

"Sociopathic tendencies."

"Ah." Buck nodded. "I had mental problems."

"Had?" Diego asked without turning around from walking.

Buck jogged to catch up with him. "Well, still have. I'm married to a pineapple."

Diego turned around. "I see."

"An ugly pineapple." Buck elaborated unnecessarily.

"Why are we talking to him?" Manny asked.

Diego shrugged. "He's been here for a long time. You want to find Sid or not?"

"How'd you know Sid's missing?"

"Some kid said that he saw you guys going to the basement. Considering Sid's not screaming like a girl here, I'm gonna take a guess and say that he went somewhere before you got down here."

"What's wrong with that lift?" Eddie demanded.

"You press a number. There's a series of numbers you memorise before you reach a floor. Press the combination of numbers and you'll get where you originally wanted to go."

"Sounds complicated." Crash noted.

"Not really." Eddie contradicted.

"So how do we find Sid?" Manny asked. Diego shrugged.

"Just keep on going until the screaming and the smell hit you."

Buck perked up. "Oh, that kid? He was dragged to the rubble over there from some construction site."

"Wait. You mean that construction-?" Manny asked.

Diego nodded. "Let's go."

"How do we get there?"

"We go through the cemetery and then reach the rubble. But there's a gigantic hound somewhere here."

"Experiment, most likely." Diego replied to the unasked questions as the others turned to him.

"Let's go then!" Buck trooped off.


Sid screamed as the hound shoved him on his back. The puppies were yapping as they followed him. "Help me! Someone! Anyone! Manny?! Ellie?! Diego?!"

The hound growled menacingly, and Sid shut up instantly.

They moved on, until they reached a dead corpse. Sid leaned to the side and immediately threw up. "Gross."

The puppies leaped onto the meat and started eating.

"No!" Sid shouted, but it was too late. The puppies backed away, showing the empty skeleton. The hound grinned in smug satisfaction - or as much as a dog could smile smugly. Dammit. "They're supposed to be vegetarians!"


"Where are we?" Eddie asked.

"Be careful." Buck warned. "There are lumps here that are unexpected. We're walking under the cemetery."

"I didn't know that there were underground tunnels under cemeteries." Diego frowned.

Buck shrugged. "Neither do I. But it appeared sometime before and is quite stable."

"How long has it been here?"

Buck frowned. "It's been recently made. I was asleep when they did it, and woke up to find them transporting some boxes across."

Diego perked up. "How recently?"

Buck shrugged. "About a few days? Few weeks?"

"Two weeks?"

"About." Buck nodded slowly. Manny shot an alarmed look to Diego, but the boy's face remained stoic.

"I see."

They made their way across the cemetery within half an hour and found themselves at the rubble from the collapsed construction site manhole tunnel. There was a hole up there, and Diego pointed to it. "He's there?"

"Yep." Buck nodded. "That's where the dogs always go."

"Dogs?" Manny asked cautiously.

Buck nodded. "They were released here when I was. There's always been a hound, but I rarely see it. It was what gave me this." he pointed at his eyepatch.

"A free eyepatch?" Eddie asked.

"Maybe he'll give us one!" Crash exclaimed.

Buck shot a look at Manny. "Welcome to my world."

He turned to Diego, who shrugged. "We're in an asylum for a reason." Buck seemed to accept this as an answer as he scrambled up to the top, closely followed by Diego and then the twins, and then Ellie and Manny. They quickly made their way over, where they heard a scream.

"What's that?" Buck frowned. "Never heard that kind of dog before."

Diego shrugged. "That's Sid for you."

They sprinted forward, Diego and Buck in the lead. They found Sid cornered by a gigantic dog. Sid was protected by three puppies, which seemed to stop the gigantic dog from attacking, but Buck wasn't taking any chances as he sprinted forward. Growling, Diego followed after him. Buck slammed into the gigantic dog, smashing the dog into the wall.

Diego used the puppies' momentarily confusion to grab Sid and drag him along. "C'mon, Weiver, we're getting out of here!"

"No!" Sid stopped abruptly. "Can we take the puppies?"

"No." Diego deadpanned.

"Why not?" Sid pouted.

"Because the puppies are the children of the dog that's trying to kill us and the asylum staff will kill them."

Sid frowned, but allowed himself to be pulled away. He waved goodbye at the puppies. "Bye bye! Take care!"

The others were already scrambling back up the hole, and Diego boosted Sid up. They made their way over, while Diego turned back to Buck. "Hurry up, Buck!" The boy turned around and sprinted towards him. Diego climbed up the rubble to the hole, offering Buck his hand. Buck grabbed it and Diego dragged him up, straining.

And not a moment too soon.

The dog snapped at where Buck's heels had been. Buck heaved a sigh of relief as he clambered up and nearly collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily. "At least that's done."