People started calling them shrink bombs or shrink seeds. No one knew where they came from. They just appeared one day and spread like an epidemic.
Also, no one knew what they were. They were so tiny that they could barely be seen. Those that saw them described them as tiny purple seeds with tiny pink flowers on one end but every time anyone managed to see one, it exploded and scattered shrinking dust on everyone nearby. Scientist had managed to collect a few samples of the shrinking powder (after the shrink seeds had shrunk the scientists) but they were nowhere near figuring out how the shrinking dust caused shrinking and without knowing how the dust shrunk people, there was no hope of finding an antidote.
People did notice some patterns though. The shrinking dust lost it's ability to shrink people quickly so if you saw a cloud of shrinking dust being carried by the wind, you were probably safe. The shrink seeds seemed to spread the same way fungi reproduce. Scientists were not sure if the shrinking dust was fungal pollen or not but it did seem like wherever the wind carried the shrinking dust, more shrink seeds appeared. In other words, after the initial explosion, it was safe to track the dust and scientists tried to track the dust to determine where the next batch of shrink seeds would appear but tracking dust is nearly impossible. The scientists could predict a general direction but the dust could settle anywhere within a hundred miles.
Also, people noticed a pattern, that people who had bad attitudes shrunk the most. Only people in the area where shrink bombs exploded would shrink but people who were being fair and rational when shrink bombs exploded only shrunk a few inches. Those who were being unfair or irrational when shrink bombs exploded shrunk to microscopic proportions. Of course since many shrink bombs would show up and explode in the same area at the same time, some people got multiple doses and as far as anyone could tell, some people shrank out of existence.
*****
Within days of hearing the first reports about shrink bombs, James learned that his older brother David had been shrunk. David was away at college and now he was only 46 centimeters tall (a foot and a half). The college temporarily closed because so many students had shrunk. James drove to the college to pick up his older brother.
At first, neither said a word. James tried to keep his eyes on the road but he kept looking at David who was now to small to look out the window. There had been talk about how maybe David needed a car seat now but David refused to use a car seat. Still, the seatbelt looked ridiculous as David could easily slip out of it without even unbuckling.
James felt urges to use this opportunity as a little payback for all the times David picked on James.