Short story about a boy who ends up in garbage processing

Question

This is a story I read as a child in the early 80s, very likely a short story in a collection and not the first story in the collection. I don't 100% remember the name of the hero, but I think he was called Chris.

Chris is a young boy in a future society who lives on the lowest level, Level 3, with his parents where they lead a middle-class life. Chris asks his parents questions like 'Where do the spoons come from? What happens if we lose one?' which they have no interest in - 'They came with the apartment'.

One day Chris spots two scruffy boys a little older than him in the corridors, and when they see him they dive into a garbage chute. Curious, he follows them down the chute onto Level 4, a level he didn't know existed. The boys aren't there, but he's quickly spotted by two men in uniforms who shout at him, and to get away he dives into another garbage chute that takes him down to Level 5. This is a dark factory where they deal with the garbage from the levels above.

Chris is grabbed by the supervisor who listens to his story then rounds up all the workers. He asks Chris to pick out the two boys that he saw on level 3, which he does. The supervisor orders two men (by surname) to 'process' one of them. That one is carried away screaming and (it's implied) fed into one of the grinding machines and killed. The supervisor thanks Chris. Chris asks the supervisor how he can get back to his parents on Level 3, but the supervisor tells him he can't – he works on Level 5 now.

Thanks for any pointers!

Answer 1

Have you looked at Book of Names, from the Diadem series by John Peel? It's not a perfect match, but there are similarities. The character I'm thinking of is called Pixel (a screenname, he has a real name and I can't recall if its Chris). He and his parents live in a house, where everything is provided (including a lot of virtual reality and internet). No one, parents or friends, is curious about the outside world, he is discouraged when he asks. At some point, he decides to leave, and experience the outdoors. He is lead to a factory, where he sees workers who are made to provide the things that were sent to the houses to take are of people. I think he may be mistaken for, or is going to be made, to be one of the workers. And afterwards, he is not allowed to return home.

The differences are - it is a novel, not a short story (though it is a short episode in a longer story). The setting is houses and outside, not levels and corridors. there's a great emphasis on Virtual Reality, which your question doesn't mention. I think he is lead to the factory and is caught because of a man, not kids, and I don't think a worker is processed for him to replace. And he isn't, in the end, forced to be a worker - he manages to escape outward (to the rest of the series). Like I said, I'm not sure if this is it, but I thought it worth offering. I hope it helps.