Grand Theft Auto: The King of Crack tells the story of Ballas soldier Zion Freeman, who goes from a nobody to the King of Crack and the iron hand of the Ballas in his home city of Davis, San Andreas.
Characters[]
Protagonists[]
Zion Freeman - The protagonist of the story, Zion was born in Davis in 1965 and grew-up during the Vietnam War, where his father, Nathan Freeman, died in 1970. When Zion was 16, he joined the Ballas.
David Freeman - Zion's brother and enforcer of the Ballas. When David was thirteen, he joined the Ballas.
Malik Thompson - Zion's best friend and Ballas gunman.
OG Elijah - Well-respected member and leader of the Davis City Ballas, the father-figure to the Freemans.
The Ballas - The gang Zion is in.
Antagonists[]
Johnson Johnson - The Leader of Ballas and son of Paternal Uncle of CJ.
The Families - Enemies of the Ballas
LSPD - The law enforcement organization battling crime.
Secondary[]
Crimson Brotherhood - A minor gang that opposes the Ballas in Davis.
Derrick Jones - An enforcer for the Crimson Brotherhood.
Story[]
Davis, 1986. David Freeman loads a magazine into his AR-15, then looks up at his brother, Zion. He nods, and Zion racks his Glock 17 and the pair head out into the dark street of Carson Avenue. Malik Thompson spots the brothers and waves them over to his position.
Quickly running to Malik, they aren't spotted by the group of Families they're about to ambush. Malik raises his fully-automatic suppressed MP5 and fires, with the Freeman siblings following. The Families return fire but retreat down Carson Avenue. The trio of Ballas hastily run south and meet up with a group of their own gang at Caleb Booker's house.
"Hey, niggas, how's it happenin'?" OG Elijah asked as the weary three collapsed onto a couch. Police sirens were heard, breaking the silence of the night. "How many did Y'all pop, huh?", the veteran gangster asked.
"Three.", Zion responded, holding up his fingers. Elijah laughed and congratulated the gunmen, with Caleb Booker handing each of them a 40 oz. of malt liquor. After a few hours of sitting around and drinking, the Freemans returned home and slept, grateful their ambush didn't go awry.
"Bro, wake up! OG needs us!" David violently shook his brother awake. Zion grabbed his Glock and loaded a mag into it. The pair were off to Elijah's crib. Once inside, they saw Elijah holding an AKS and smoking a joint, with Booker and a few other gangsters with him.
"Hey, boys. We're hittin' Lorenzo Coleman, a hustler who's with the Families and fuckin' around on our turf. Malik and his squad have him sighted downtown, eatin' some food with his crew. We're gonna get this bitch. Load up, fellas." Elijah said in a commanding voice.
The gang loaded-up, headed downtown in two sliding-door vans. Malik's crew was spotted by Booker, and he saw them point at a restaurant. Booker told everyone where Lorenzo was, and the doors slid open. In ten seconds, nearly two-hundred bullets were fired, and at least a dozen people killed, even more wounded.
Fortunately for the crooks, no cops were nearby and a safe getaway was made. Elijah was very pleased with the murder until they learned that five kids and their pregnant mother were killed by stray bullets. "I can't... this sucks, nigga," the OG said to no one in particular when the crew was watching the news.
"They were just fuckin' kids, nigga." Zion said. Elijah devolved into a depressed alcoholic and fiend. Not being fit for the position of OG, he stepped down. David and Booker became co-leaders of the set, until Booker was arrested for assault and battery on a waitress and several civilians in a restaurant two months after his promotion. Booker was shanked in prison by Families members.
The Ballas operation in Davis continued. With the Families-Ballas conflict dying down, the gang shifted to the distribution of crack cocaine. Money was brought in for the criminals in immense amounts. Zion's role in the new operation was enforcer, and, along with Malik, the duo terrorized small-time dealers and gangs looking to make a name for themselves. The group continued this, and, by mid-1987, the gang controlled the entire drug trade of Davis.
Derrick Jones, an enforcer for a minor gang called the Crimson Brotherhood, based in the city of Davis, wanted to make a name for himself, and so, he was set on killing Ballas. His string of homicides involved all sorts of weapons, such as revolvers, knives, bludgeons and cudgels, even brass knuckles. Before long, Derrick began to hunt the top lieutenants of the Ballas set.
One night, Jones and several other gangsters seeking fame, intercepted David at a night-club and shot his car up in a drive-by. David was hit by over twenty bullets. Two of his friends who were in his car survived, and were able to identify Derrick. Zion, now the sole commander of the gang, retaliated brutally on the murderers. He personally kidnapped Jones and his two siblings. He murdered Jones's brother and gang-raped the sister. To torture Jones, even more, he told Derrick that to leave with his sister alive, he had to have sex with her, lest he would watch his sister be murdered, slowly and painfully.
Derrick complied. Most of the torturers, excluding Freeman, puked or left the room. After five minutes, Zion sprayed the siblings with his Tec-9. After the torture session was over, the bodies were burned in a remote area far outside of Davis. Most of the Ballas sets saw this as overkill, but Zion's response was "you niggas do it differently in your hoods, I run my shit like Colombia".
Freeman's crack kingdom was bustling. He wanted to put Ballas influence in Strawberry. Seeing as the crack operation was well-developed and nearly untouchable, he starting selling in Families territory. Zion, who took 50% of each deal, bought weapons and ammo for his soldiers to continue their monopoly on the trade.
A major gang war began, where the Families began to defend their territory in Strawberry. On the streets, shootouts in broad daylight were common, and drive-bys in the night were frequent. Thompson was put in charge of the Strawberry operation. Zion trusted his friend to bring in the money and get the Ballas jackboot in the rival city.
Malik Thompson continued the war with new weapons, new soldiers, and new tactics. To get the heat off the gang, Zion ordered Thompson to contact an extremely corrupt group of cops and their wicked leader, organizing a deal between the two groups.
The Strawberry War, as it was called, would garner most devotion to the Ballas for nearly three entire years. Zion dealt with building alliances and dealing with C.R.A.S.H., the police group he had recruited to assist the Ballas.
Zion had accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars, and spent the money on guns, cars, and women. The OG had "made it", and was respected by many, but not all, Ballas. Zakari Simon, a member of the Ballas since 1979, began to make moves against Zion, which climaxed in a drive-by attack on Zion's most powerful enforcer, Malik. Malik survived without any wounds, but Zion brought the hammer down on Zakari, killing his mother and brother. Zakari was eliminated by a Ballas sniper two weeks after Zakari went into hiding.
In 1988, Zion made a return to the streets, killing dozens of Families soldiers in under a week upon his arrival in Strawberry. After a month on the "front-lines", Freeman suffered several wounds after a surprise Families ambush in Strawberry. The hood surgeon, Mr. Mosley, fixed him up. Zion took it easy for a while, staying in the shadows and giving orders from his home, The Crackhouse.
Many in the Families began to go into hiding, afraid of the powerful Ballas rolling over Strawberry. However, the Temple Drive Ballas were taken out by influential Families soldiers who established their own set. No matter how hard the purple-clad criminals tried, they could never take back Temple Drive. This inspired the Strawberry Families, who began to fight with a reinvigorated spirit.
C.R.A.S.H. began plotting the downfall of Zion. Tenpenny despised the drug lord and wanted Malik to become the gang's leader instead. Tenpenny and his fellow officers backed Malik with money and weapons; the enforcer was seduced by promises of money, women, and unlimited power, and began to turn against his friend.
Malik formed a circle of conspirators prepared to depose Freeman and make Malik the leader. Malik's allies ranged from veterans of the gang to fresh recruits. For most of 1989, Malik built his allies and Zion stayed in the shadows while the Strawberry War raged.
In 1990, Zion, recovered from his wounds, hunted the streets with his top lieutenants; he took out many Families OGs. By then, he was called the King of Crack by his men and by his enemies. The King swept through Strawberry, finally capturing the territory for the Ballas after a ruthless gunfight that leftover forty-five men dead on both sides in 1990. The climactic battle of the war secured Balla superiority in dealings across Strawberry. Limited pockets of other gangs and Families in Strawberry would be wiped out by 1991.
Zion's dealings with Officer Tenpenny and his C.R.A.S.H. associates were becoming more cold and heartless. However, Zion understood it was essential to have C.R.A.S.H. on the Ballas side. Zion never caught on that Malik was preparing to depose him.
At the ultimate height of power, Zion became addicted to crack cocaine and various other drugs. He became unstable and was prone to outbreaks of extreme anger. Many feared him. In early 1990, Zion shot two of his subordinates after they gave him "bad news".
On June 14th, 1990, Zion traveled to Strawberry to meet with Malik; however, it was Officer Tenpenny who greeted him, with bullets instead of words. The C.R.A.S.H. officer fired nineteen shots at Zion after the latter got out of his car. Freeman wasn't hit, and returned fire. Tenpenny was hit in the arm, but called for back-up before Zion could finish him.
Quickly, Zion ran from the meeting place and headed through alleys and rundown neighborhoods, evading dozens of cop cars. However, a helicopter spotted Zion as he fled through a neighborhood and sent his location out on the radio. Immediately, police officers sped to the location, catching Freeman off-guard.
The criminal ran into a backyard, chased by several cops who ordered him to drop his firearm and turn around. Instead, he vaulted over a wooden fence and continued running. The police followed, not giving Zion a chance to breathe.
Zion ran to another poor neighborhood and took cover in a ravaged house. The drug lord injected a needle of PCP into his arm and prepared for the final confrontation. Gripping his Glock 17, he went out of cover and fired at the advancing police officers, wounded one and pinning a few others down.
As Zion backed up into cover, an officer lunged up and fired eleven shots from his 9mm pistol, hitting the gangster in the chest, right arm, and stomach eight times. Zion fell on his back, and fired at the officer who scored the shots on Zion; the cop was unscathed. A final, ninth shot struck Zion's left temple, killing him.
The news was shocking for the residents of Davis, who had been controlled by Zion for years. Quickly, Ballas fought each other for the position of leader for three days until the violence calmed. Malik was elected leader.
Malik took the throne. Ten days after Zion was gunned down, Malik fled from the entire state of San Andreas for unknown reasons. Tenpenny "crowned" another Balla of his choosing. However, the legacy of Zion guided the Ballas to ultimate power in the early 90's, until the Grove Street Families put the Ballas down a few steps in 1992.