The Search for the Neanderthals

​There had been a rumor for some time that a tribe of Neanderthals still roamed deep in the remote northern reaches of Canada. But, of course, a lot of this was merely speculation and folklore. This recent rumor had been brought back by a group of Norwegian explorers.

​I was an explorer myself and decided to sign up for an expedition up north along with ten other explorers from all over the world to see if this rumor was true.

On December 1st, 2019, we landed in Resolute Bay, Canada to explore the Arctic. The community was friendly and welcomed us with open arms. Our expedition would keep us in the Arctic for about a month, with our goal of finding a lost tribe of the Neanderthals. 

We set out the next day after our arrival and the temperatures plummeted below our thermometer's capacity. The wind then started to kick up and the cold breeze began to bite through our clothing, but we pressed on in pursuit of the Neanderthals. Mile by mile we moved north into the Arctic tundra and every step we took it was one step further away from the safety of Resolute Bay.

Our biggest fear in the tundra was that of freezing to death or becoming lost in a blizzard. We decided to split up into two groups. One group would head northeast and the other would head northwest and we would then rendezvous back at a certain location in three days time. Three days passed and the group that headed northeast never came back. The search for the missing explorers was on as we headed northeast along their supposed path.  

About a day and a half into the search we found what was left of them. They had been torn to shreds by polar bears. We examined their carcasses from a distance and that's when we realized the polar bears were still nearby. One of them was dragging a corpse in his mouth as he walked in reverse;  another was trying to tear the clothes off one of the bodies. All around us the snow was drenched in blood and guts. The polar bears looked at us but were more interested in tearing up the bodies. A few minutes later they left and we moved in closer to inspect the corpses. 

It was a ghastly site. Identification was impossible as none of the bodies had heads and the rest of them was mangled beyond recognition. We decided to leave the scene as is and head back to Resolute Bay. 

Then the impossible happened when we saw the heads of our dead explorers come up above a bluff. Next, we saw the heads of the polar bears. Terrified, we witnessed the unthinkabke as the Neanderthals came towards us wearing polar bear skins with  polar bear faces crowning their heads. The Neanderthals had our dead explorer's heads in hand and were flouting them in the air on the end of sharp sticks. They marched towards us.  

Then an old, bitter, grissled Neanderthal crept upon me and was no more then five feet away when he raised his spiked club over my head.