The Gangs of Barnam

It felt like Barnam had always been a town of three gangs. If you spoke to anyone from around here, they would likely tell you one single story. At the start of the decade, three men were arrested. David Kruger, Archibald Lanes and Ryan Bannock. Each of them had together carried out one of the biggest heists in local history. The robbery took place in the now empty and incinerated Barnam International Bank. The men managed to get away with an incredible sum of six million British pounds sterling.

The money was hidden, taken deep into Barnam forest perhaps, or stashed in the quarry at Winston-on-Thames or some say that it could be buried in one of the men’s own back gardens. It was difficult to say what happened with the money but all three men denied early parole for information on the whereabouts of the cash countless times and on many occasions they gave false information wasting police time and extending their sentences. 

Mr Kruger, Archibald and Bannock died in prison leaving behind their wives and in total five children. 

Mr Kruger had three children Lex, Aaron and Kirk (although everyone called him Bav). Archibald left behind one child, his name was Paulo Lanes and Bannock’s child was called Zachariah Bannock. Each of them grew up with their mothers explaining the heist story, like an earworm, it burrowed deep into their skull and sat in wait. Six million is a dizzying amount of money and once it had possessed the mind of the five children, it was very hard to let it go. 

The Kruger brothers firmly believed in the quarry theory. The town of Winston-on-Thames bordered the north of Barnam and the quarry hung nearly perfectly half and half between the two. The brothers threatened the original owners of ‘Saxon and Sons Mining Company’ with violence until they had legally acquired the entire quarry for the small sum of five English pounds. 

Paulo Lanes was known locally as the ‘Barnam Butcher’. He was gruesome and took every opportunity he had to inflict pain upon others to find that money. He would maim and threaten all who stood in his way. 

His area was large and was the place where all three fathers had worked together as mechanics. Paulo was obsessed with the idea that this was where the money had been buried. His dad was never home when he was young and Paulo was older than the other boys so he remembered this fact.

Zachariah Bannock was known simply as “Bannock’s Boy”. He was clever, political and cunning. He would use local members of parliament and other people of influence to blackmail and writhe his way to the top like a snake. He was as slippery as one too. In ten years, the police have never once investigated his dealing, although many attribute this to bribery and control of many officers. 

After five years of searching, the men had decided that they were wrong. Their father had hidden this great bounty in another part of Barnam. They rose up against each other, battling, brawling and betraying each other to take land and control the maximum amount of the city possible. Five years of bloodshed spilled out in a heartbeat. Gang warfare was all Barnam was known for nowadays and nobody would dare to venture over the surrounding borders. 

Police presence was high, but all of them were in Bannock’s pocket anyway. So the other two gangs were perceived as worse than him while he ventured around in the daylight, the other two crept about in the shadows. Grim violence ensued almost daily and in the end the poverty of the people still desperately clinging on to the only home they had, plunged into a deep level of evil that had never been seen in England before.

November 18th 2015 was a day unlike any other. Bannock had used his police presence to escalate his search. After ten years of looking, he had dug up three million of the six that was stolen. With it came a dirty note, bloodied and warped as if it had been stained by tea. A note that was tossed aside without reading it, a note that glowed when it hit the soil, a note that screamed from the inside and vibrated in the wind like it were in an earthquake. Yet, Bannock did not see this, he only saw the money. 

As the light of the note began to die, the clouds formed heavy above in the sky. A fast forming, rolling thunderstorm appeared from apparently nowhere. The plumes of grey smoke blocked out the sun and the thunder sounded like someone cracking a whip across another’s back.

Bannock retreated from the storm to his grand estate in the south of Barnam as the lightning touched hands in the swirling grey mass above. He had ordered many police officers to collect and count the money into waterproof bags to protect it from anything, including the weather. He sat in a large red spinning armchair in front of a long and gorgeous glass table when the police arrived with the giant sacks of notes and he grinned a wide warped smile as they told him how much was estimated to be there. 

Outside, thunder roared and lightning struck viciously against the ground. The howling of the wind moaned and brayed as it bent trees into an almost horizontal position. Wisps of wind were spinning leaves and dirt around in circles and the note laid where Bannock had thrown it. It was completely still and unaffected by the tempest it was in. The folded piece of paper continued to glow and pulse like a heartbeat when a large flash of lightning filled the sky and an enormous hand reached down and pried it with a thumb and finger from the soil. 

It wasn’t long before the Kruger brothers and Paulo had heard about the discovery from their scouts. It is said that when they heard the news the Barnam Butcher killed the scout who told him in frustration and the Kruger brothers left a high stakes poker game soon after they had just sat down to play, leaving eighty thousand of their money on the table. Within an hour, armies were called, positioned and ready to march on the Bannock estate. Molotov cocktails were prepared, guns were holstered and knives were stowed safely away. 

Several of Paulo’s men were pulling and cutting electrical wire attached to the house to try and open the electric gate. A plain of dead bodies, both police officers and gang members lay sprawled at the foot of the black gates of Bannock’s estate and the two gangs who were once enemies stood shoulder to shoulder looking up at the great gate and fences which still stood active and firmly closed, trying to find a way in. 

Inside, Bannock sat in complete darkness. Only frequent flashes of lightning filled the room with pools of quick light. His desk reflected his own anxious eyes back up at him as he heard a noise like someone ascending the stairs very slowly. His office had no other escape, it was either the door or the window and as the door opened he prepared for a quick death. 

A huge man bowed through the door and stood tall enough to nearly press his hair against the ceiling. His fingernails were dirty from wet soil and his clothes were soaked through and grey with filth. His heart flickered and pulsed as if lighting were trapped inside and was trying to get out.

 He stared in a hard way at Zachariah Bannock, the pits of his eye sockets were black in the night’s darkness and only in the flashes of lightning could his pupils be seen. He had a demonic grin which beamed from one ear to the other and his size made him feel like he filled up the room.

“You forgot this Mr Bannock,” the man said in a deep voice. Extending his fist out to the trembling man behind the desk, he dropped a scrunched up, glowing piece of paper onto the glass. Dirt spilled from his very open sleeves and pieces of soil fell onto the note and crumbled like pastry around the paper.

Mr Bannock began to read the note carefully and his face became deluded, confused and fearful. His breathing almost came to a halt and his eyes were transfixed on the tea-stained piece of paper in front of him.

“This is ridiculous. Unreal! Not true!” he said.

“Then why does the paper glow, Zachariah?” said the strange tall man.

“It is a trick, you are a swindler like all of the rest.” Bannock paused suddenly. “How did you even get in here?” 

“I simply walked up the stairs, Mr Bannock.” replied the man. 

The room filled with the light of a nearby strike of lightning and with it the giant man’s chest seemed to fill with the light. It passed through the great round window behind Bannock and into the man’s heart as if it were burning him up inside. His eyes burned with great white and blue electricity twirled around the fibres of his beard. His hair floated like he was underwater and his skeleton could be seen through the translucent skin which he wore. 

Bannock’s eyes filled with fear and in an instant, the towering man was gone and Bannock was slumped in his spinning red chair behind his soil stained desk. Dead. 

The note blew from the desk and gently settled itself between the bag of money that lay strewn across the floor. 

The storm still hurled on, it had been raging for eight hours at this point and in the darkness the crying wind bellowed and barged at anyone in her way. Suddenly, she grasped onto the iron fencing of the Bannock estate with both hands and shook furiously. The gorgeous Victorian style barrier popped, pinged and melted like butter under the great force of the gale’s strength. Each attached fitting that held the gate in suspension pulled away until the twisted bars of astute metalwork had peeled to the unforgiving force of the wind.

The armed men of both the butcher and the Kruger brothers stood with their mouths open wide at how the weather had pulled this gate apart in such a casual way but within moments their mission regained consciousness and they began to walk with meaning towards the front door of Bannock’s mansion. 

Lex Kruger stood over the body of Zachariah Bannock. His face was possessed by confusion and as he checked for wounds, especially bullet holes, he could not find any external reason why he could have died. He was puzzled and his concern grew knowing that no-one could have entered this room.

“Perhaps he had a heart attack, Lex!” said Bav Kruger. 

“Yeah don’t worry about it now, look at the money.” said Aaron Kruger. 

“How are we going to split this up? I think it is time we all got some and stopped this madness.” said Paulo. 

The boys looked at the money for some time and talked at great length about splitting the cash amongst them in order to stop the war or even to join forces to find the other half. Out of all of them, it was only Lex that noticed the note laying on the top of the money bags. 

He reached down when the others were taking the money outside to take it and held it firmly in his palm for a moment. He began to open it to see what was inside but Bav came quickly in the room, so he smoothly slipped it into his back pocket and it stayed there for the rest of the night. 

The money was slowly moved out to four individual vans and the men parted ways, the success beamed from everyone including Lex and they felt triumphant, like kings. 

When the morning sun pierced through the grey backing of the continuous and seething thunderstorm. The colours of orange, purple and white all merged together to make an elegant and luminous display. The lightning exploded like fireworks and the rain shimmered against all of the different lights like falling mirrors.

Lex Kruger laid sleeping while his back trouser pocket shined with each striking lightning bolt. The light filled the room, as if a train were going past Lex’s window at breakneck speed. Yet, he did not stir at all, until his mobile phone blared out from his bedside table. The ringtone was jarring and he rushed to grab at his mobile. 

“Who is this? Do you know the ti….” said Lex.

“Lex, help me, he’s crazy. Lex? Lex!”

“Aaron? Who's there?”

“He said he killed Bannock and the butcher and, and Bav.”

“Bav? Bav isn’t dead. Have you been taking stuff again?”

“No really Lex. He is coming. I am going to die. I’m gonna…” 

Lex did not have much time to respond because Aaron went deathly quiet. The voice of an old man could be heard over the phone and a great intense sound of thunder roared through the telephone and just as the line went dead and fizzled into white noise a flash of lightning filled the skies outside. The letter in Lex’s back pocket glowed and beckoned him. 

When Lex opened the letter, he read it line by line. Each line made his eyes widen more. His mouth slimmed as he read and flatlined at the very end. He looked up at the bags of money that were propped up against the large regal looking bedroom doors and took a very deep sigh. 

Lex got dressed, went down to the ground floor in his private elevator and hailed his driver to pull the Bentley around to the front doors. Lex went down the crystal white steps, got in the back of the luxury car, whispered an address to his driver and off they went. The note had been scrunched up in his right hand the whole time. 

Lex’s car slowly came to a stop and as his driver stared ahead. Lex exited the car by himself and slammed the door behind him. He corrected his jacket by tugging on the lapels and rotated his head to reset his stiff neck and walked out into the middle of an isolated breaker’s yard. 

Car parts buckled and gently moved in the winds of the storm as Lex approached a young thin woman with ebony hair who stood completely still watching him from afar. She was surrounded by a round of cars and the dirt at her feet wisped and moved fluidly like a river in the storm’s now calmed breeze. 

“Good morning Mr Kruger. Isn’t it a beautiful day?” said the woman.

“Your note I assume.” Lex threw the note to the ground almost spitting at it as he launched it. When it hit the soil, the crumpled note unfurled and retorted against its destruction.

“You would guess right, Lex.” she said. “In fact, I once had all of my father’s money, as the note said. I found it practically at the start of the hunt.” 

“Well if you had the money first and no-one knew who you were, why would you kill my brothers and the other two?” Lex said.

“Oh Lexi, you don’t know the whole truth yet.” she said as she smiled. “My father Lucas Reeves was young. He had worked for the circus as an acrobat for fifteen years, starting as a very young boy. My mother had just given birth to me and your father and Paolo’s and Zachariah’s forced my father to join their scheme.” she looked at Lex, anger welling in her tears. “They told him they would kill me and my mother if he did not help them. They needed someone nimble to get into the vaults where the money was stored and when they had used him for that, they shot him and left him to die in the burning building.”

“Even if that was true. That was them, not us. It happened before we even started looking for the money. How is it our fault?” Lex said.

“Look at this town Mr Kruger. Battered, beaten and butchered to the calling of your three family names. You killed Barnam for your own greed, just like they killed my father for theirs and now you pay the price.” 

A crack of thunder swarmed the air as the note fluttered to the young woman’s hands. The air grew heavy as the pressure began to build and gave way to a mighty bolt of lightning which blistered and fanned out as it struck the earth. As the light faded, a giant man with dark eyes, a long white beard and ragged grey clothing stood between Lex and the woman. The strange man was smiling a great grin of contentment from ear to ear.

“This is the curse that I put on you, Lex Kruger. The note condemns those who will not give back to this town. He will kill anyone who keeps the money for himself, he will kill anyone who doesn’t get their just deserts.” 

“Ok” Lex pleaded on his knees “I will give the money up. I will save Barnam and bring it back to its former state. I promise it. Just let me go.” 

“Very well.” she said

The woman smiled slightly to herself at the sign of one of the scariest criminals in Barnam on his knees, crying deeply and begging not to be killed. The note quickly flashed into the air and with it the gigantic man too, a strong and bright flash of lighting broke a parting in the clouds and the two day long thunderstorm passed. 

As Lex lay on the ground clutching his knees and sobbing, the birds sang, the sun shone brighter than it had for ten years and the flowers and trees stood taller. Barnam surged with renewal.