The Drop
by John Christopher, Galaxy (March 1953)
reprinted Science Fiction Stories, ed. Tom Boardman Jr. (Octopus, 1979)
SF short story where a clunky disquiet reveals itself as dystopia (masquerading as tightly regulated survival colonisation). Christopher hints at a greater storyline, and one can imagine this as a much longer work. The ending, however, proves a banal sort of twist.