The Shantytown Robin Hoods

The Shantytown Robin Hoods by Cora BuhlertLatisha, Moses and Tim are three street kids eking out a living in a dystopian future. Together, they are the Shantytown Robin Hoods, a street gang that steals from the rich and gives to – well, themselves.

“The Hole” is the hottest night club in Shantytown, where the rich and the famous can party among the less fortunate. But “The Hole” is also a favourite hangout for Latisha, Moses and Tim to find marks they can rob.

But then their latest job is derailed by a mobster with sticky fingers and a prize on his head, a teen pop sensation, a trigger-happy bodyguard and a red-haired assassin.

Soon bullets are flying in Shantytown and Latisha, Moses and Tim must keep their heads down to survive and steal another day…

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Some background information:

  • The Shantytown Robin Hoods is a short story of 2800 words. This story is a digital premiere and has never been published previously.
  • This story was written as part of the 2017 July short story challenge. The idea was to write a short story per day in July 2017.
  • Like many stories to come out of the July challenges, The Shantytown Robin Hoods was inspired by a piece of art, namely this one by an artist known only as Macfixed, whoe Deviant Art account has sadly been deactivated. In this case, the piece of art was so evocative that I simply asked myself who the various characters depicted were and what they were doing in that place. Once I knew what everybody’s motivations and aims were, the story practically wrote itself.
  • The piece of art is entitled “Take from the Rich”, which in turn inspired the Robin Hood theme.
  • One of the characters in the image, namely the young man exiting the club, looks a bit like David Tennant during his tenure as Doctor Who. This is why Latisha tells Moses in the story that the man they’re planning to rob looks a little bit like “the actor from that show you used to love as a kid, David something or other”.
  • Victor Zardoz, bodyguard to the mob, is named after the 1974 science fiction film Zardoz, which famously features floating stone heads and Sean Connery in a bright red loin cloth.
  • The cover is stock art by the talented Thai artist Tithi Luadthong a.k.a. Grandfailure, whose artwork also graces the covers of the In Love and War series.
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