Homecoming

When you are sent to Dogfights, you die.
Bairn is determined to survive.

When his parents lose an Exhibition match, young Bairn is traded from the flash and show of the spectacle matches to grit and realism of the Dogfights. There are only three ways to win: knock your opponent out, break their limbs, or kill them.

Bairn needs to survive his training, earn out the money on his family debt, and find some way to get back home to his family, even across the ruined wastelands between the cities. If he makes it that far, he has to find a way back into the Exhibition, when the only means of entry is once again becoming a slave.

This collection of three short stories sees Bairn trying to earn his freedom, traversing the wastelands, and returning to his family, all to keep the rash promise he made as they were dragging him away: I will come back.