He was alone, and it felt so cold. The last thing he remembers is having dinner with his family. Lieutenant Charles J Winterfox was a United States marine. He served full duty tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He received a medal of honor for taking a bullet for a general. He remembers being taken from his family, and his military experience. He was now alone, and he felt so cold.

Charles wakes up in a simple room. Linoleum floors, tiled walls, a bed and a table with a lamp that was the only source of light in the room. There isn’t a whole lot of room, it’s just ten by ten paces wide, and there is a door, but it’s locked. He finally looks at what he is wearing. It is a simple olive drab jumpsuit with four pockets, he figures on them being empty, but he checks anyway. In the left breast pocket he finds a note that reads:
You will be given instructions shortly, think fast and smart, your life will depend on it.
Why didn’t they just give me a note with instructions on it? He sat on the bed and waited. By his guess about twenty minutes went by when he heard a voice on s speaker that wasn’t there before. “Subject Charles J Winterfox, you have been selected for a special test.” The voice continued, “In three minutes the door will unlock. You will need to select a weapon that is suitable for the environment you enter. You may pick two weapons. Choose wisely and good luck.” The door opened shortly after. He went out and found himself to be in a tunnel. There was a rack of weaponry against a wall. Nothing modern at all, swords, bows, spears, shields. He walked over to the rack and thought hard, he would need reach yet to be able to fight close quarters combat, so he grabbed a sword. He figured that he would need to hunt, so he grabbed a bow with a quiver that was packed full of arrows. He strapped the sword to his hip and slung the arrows over his shoulder. He started walking down the hall. As he did he started to see sunlight. “I must be dreaming, having a nightmare, or something.” He told himself. When he was out of the tunnel he looked around as the area widened immensely. He was in a forest area. He recognized several different types of trees. Pine, maple, oak, and a few others. He took in his surroundings. He could hear running water, so he had one necessary thing to survive already. He sat by the nearest pine tree and started checking his equipment. The sword was fairly simple. It was a four foot straight blade with a hilt that curved out slightly. The handle was wrapped with simple leather, and the whole thing felt perfectly balanced in his hand. There was a sharpening stone in a pouch on the sheath.

The bow was another story. It was a recurve bow with a camouflage wrap on it. When he drew it he thought it felt a little heavy on the draw weight, but he would just have to deal with it. “I’ll get used to it.” Again he started talking to himself. The arrows were made of cedar, fletched with what appeared to be goose feathers; the tip was a two blade broadhead with tiny serrations along half of the cutting edge. “These should do nicely.”
“That they will rookie” said a gruff voice behind him. He almost jumped out of his skin as he turned. He already had an arrow drawn as he faced the man. “Relax soldier, I aint gunna hurt ya, just wanna talk that’s all.” The man was about six foot and was built like a rock. Charles judged him to be about in his mid-thirties. He had a knife and a sword identical to the one he had. And the guy’s jumpsuit was the same as his too. He lowered the bow but kept tension on the string. “What’s your name son?” the man asked, not moving forward at all. Smart guy, he knows better than to approach someone new. “I’m Lieutenant Charles J Winterfox, but my friends call me Charlie.” He said. “What’s your name?” Charlie asked. “I’m General Sam Preston. My friends call me Tex.”
“Ok Tex, where am I? What is this place?” Charlie asked. Suddenly Sam got a serious look on his face. “It’s called the woodsman’s trap. We get dropped in here for some serious training, then if they think you are up to snuff you might get to leave. I’ve been here for almost three years, and I’ve barely broken a sweat.” He said. “I’ve only seen two people get out alive.” “Alive?” Charlie asked. Sam nodded. “Yep, if ya die out here they come pick up your body, not sure what they do with them though.” Charlie started to get nervous, he was worried that he may never see his home again.
“I can see you’ve got a lot on your mind. I’ll leave you to think for a bit, if you need me I’m about a quarter mile up that creek over there.” Sam said as he walked away. Charlie thought about it for a moment, then he walked toward the creek, taking his time. He figured that he was almost there when he smelled a campfire. He had to push through some thick brush to get closer. Suddenly the woods opened up into a clearing. He expected to see a simple shack and whatnot, but he was looking at a full size cabin, with a chimney and everything. He walked up to the door and gave it a knock. “It’s open.” A voice called from inside, but it didn’t sound like Tex’s voice, it sounded softer, kinder. He opened the door. The inside of this cabin was huge. There was furniture and everything. “Whoa” Charlie said. “Yeah it’s pretty cool ain’t it Charlie?” he knew that would be Tex as he turned around.
“You build this?” Charlie asked. “Nah just improved it a bit. “Sam said.
“Not much worth improving if you ask me.” Said the voice Charlie heard before. He walked around the corner to see the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She stood about five-eight at a guess; had a darker skin tone, Charlie assumed she used to live somewhere like the Bahamas or Mexico, and she had her long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a jumpsuit that looked just like his, but hers looked like it fit her a little better . “You just gonna stand there and make goo-goo eyes at me or are you gonna tell me your name?” she said, putting a fist to her hip. “Lieutenant Charles J Winterfox ma’am, but you can call me Charlie.” He said as calm as he could. He turned to Sam. “Tex you really need to work on your people skills, you made it sound like you were alone out here.” Tex just grinned and shook his head. “You can take your weapons and set them in the spare room over there, that’s where you can sleep.” He pointed out behind the cabin, “there’s a latrine out back, and a target range behind that, you should probably get some practice in before we move”. “Move?” Charlie asked. “Yeah, in the morning we move to another campsite before they turn the snow on, and yes I said they, they as in the people running the show, and no we don’t have a name for them yet.”

“Complete a------- if you ask me.” Said the woman. “Sounds very descriptive to me. By the way, I never did get you name?” Charlie asked politely. “Lieutenant Veronica L smith, but just call me veronica.” She said, giving a c***-eyed salute in a joking manner. “I’ve been here for a year, Tex took me in when I first got dropped in, and we’ve been keeping each other alive ever since.” She smiled at him. “You better go get some practice Charlie, do you even know how to use a sword?” she asked. He shrugged “I had about a month of fencing when I was in high school, but I lost interest in it.” She grinned, “No kidding, I was state fencing champ in high school. Come out back and I’ll teach you a trick or two.” And she walked out the back door. He set his bow in the corner and followed her out. She was standing in the middle of a ring in the ground, about ten feet across. She motioned to him to step in the ring. As he did he noticed that her sword was different than his. His was a double edged straight blade with a heavy tip, hers was a slim one-edged cutlass that looked way lighter than his, and veronica looked like she knew how to use it. “Let’s get started then.” She said, and all of a sudden she was swinging at him. He barely managed to get his sword out of the scabbard in time to stop the blow. It hit hard and knocked him back, he just managed to recover in time to block the rest, she would swing down and then back up in an uppercut kind of way. After a brutal five minutes she let up and let him breathe. They started circling each other like cats. Waiting, and watching for the other to make a mistake. She gave him a smile, not the kind as a friend would give, but the kind that would make a man’s heart melt. It was enough for her to notice, she resumed the attack and before he knew it she had her blade against his exposed throat. “You did well, I think you know enough to beat the others.” She said. “Others? You mean there are more people out here?” he asked.
“Yep, and none of ‘em are nearly as friendly as we are” she answered
“D--- right!” a voice shouted from the woods. Suddenly a man came thundering out of the wood with a knife in his hand, with a snarl on his face that said that he was ready to kill someone. But suddenly Charlie heard a twang and something flew past his ear, before he knew it, the man crumpled to the ground with an arrow protruding from his forehead. He turned to see Tex holding his bow. “He circled around the cabin, I guess he assumed that everyone was out back, so I grabbed the bow and stopped him.” Tex gave veronica a glare that would belong to a man tough enough to chew horseshoes and spit nails. “You know better than to let you guard down, you should have seen him coming from a mile away!” he fumed. Then he softened up a bit. “Look, I know you two were having a good time and all, but that’s no excuse.”
“Tex, I gotta say, she was the one having fun, and I was busy getting my ass kicked.” Charlie chuckled. Tex tried to keep a serious face but couldn’t, he started laughing. “Yeah it wasn’t hard for her to do was it, Charlie boy?” they went into the cabin, laughing the whole way, and started packing wicker baskets with supplies for the trip. Nobody bothered covering the body, the man didn’t deserve a proper burial. Charlie slept hard that night. Somewhere, he started dreaming about what happened to his family. They were all sitting at the dining table, when suddenly, the door was kicked in. men in grey swat gear flooded into the house. They gunned down his wife and son. He was screaming with all his being, but they acted like he wasn’t even there. Then he woke up to Tex shaking him. “HEY! Wake up, Charlie!” Charlie realized he had really been screaming. Veronica was standing there with a very worried look on her face. She sat next to him on the straw bed. “whats wrong?”she asked. “I have nothing left.” He said in a raspy voice. “how so?” tex asked. He looked just as worried as veronica. “my family, they killed my family when they took me here.” He tried to hold back his tears but he just couldn’t do it, he started shaking with racking sobs. Veronica leaned in and gave him a hug as he cried. “I’ll leave you two alone, im gunna try to get some more sleep. He quietly stepped out.