The Resizer Virus, when it came, came suddenly and violently. In 2019 when it was first documented it caused a global panic which would last for several years. Eventually though life calmed back down and adjusted to the fact that a minority of the global population would, in the blink of an eye, shrink to about the size of a GI Joe or Barbie doll. It was no longer treated as cause for concern by the immune or the vaccinated. However, for the not insignificant segment of the America population who had come in contact with the virus in the early days and been found to have a "dormant state" of it, it was a significant concern.
Heidi Jones was one such individual. At first she existed in a state of near constant hysteria. No longer on speaking terms with her family and not having anyone nearby she could trust, she instinctively knew that should her virus ever switch to the "active state" she was in deep trouble, and could at best look forward to a life of modern slavery or else reduced to a pet. As time went on more and more stories began to emerge--at first on niche internet sites--of these unfortunate few being kept in hamster cages and little leashes. Eventually once the panic subsided and people realized the protection laws could not easily be enforced, after all was the government really going to go door-to-door, an entire market emerged catering to those curious about keeping a shrunken person. Eventually it became culturally, then legally, acceptable to own one.
This fear was on occasion reawakened when she saw a 'Shrinkie', as those with the active form of the virus were now known. For example, like right now.
Heidi was in her final year of undergrad and currently packing up her things to leave the campus dining hall. The reason she was leaving was because at the table diagonal from her own, a group of boys had pulled out a squirming naked White girl and dumped her on the table between them, prodding her with the sharp ends of pencils until she began to dance, however haltingly and reluctantly and shakily. Clearly she was terrified. No one said anything, and a few of the boys had their phones out to take photos or recordings.
She was walking, perhaps a little faster than normal, down the halls of a deserted wing of Campus Center when she felt a strange cramp begin to creep up the back of her legs and into her spine. Her brow furrowing, she wiped away a thin layer of sweat that materialized on her forehead out of nowhere before she ducked into a classroom with an open door that looked empty. She thought she might take a seat to catch her breath and maybe put on a few squirts of perfume when she doubled over like she was about to vomit. The world around her began to swim and throb in and out of focus before she blacked out for maybe thirty seconds, like someone had pulled a blindfold over her eyes. She had a strange sensation of vertigo, of falling, that filled her with a kind of incoherent and inarticulate dread.
When she finally could see again she noted several things almost simultaneously. The first being that it was suddenly so much colder, and it was colder because she was standing in a pile of her own clothes. And everything around her was that much larger, that much vaster. The desk she had been about to sit at was the size of a skyscraper. She was staring at the desk when she heard something in the distance shift and scrape. She jerked her head around wildly, now aware that she had shrunk on campus and was not alone in the room. Her panic manifested as a small whimper and moan. There was someone else in the room.
