Tally Facing The Future Analysis

A giant flying machine from the Rusty Era which causes a big windstorm with its spinning disk appears. It hovers around and then leaves without finding Tally in the river. Unfortunately, the flying machine does accidentally rip up Tally's sleeping bag. But the board is fine, so Tally rides one more night until she reaches a branch in the river. Which branch to take? Shay's note says to "take the side you despise" and Tally remembers that day when Tally and Shay talked about face options in "Facing the Future." And Tally despises the right side of her face, so she takes the right branch of the river. Good choice, because by the end of that night, Tally finds herself in a landscape full of white flowers. And the next part of Shay's clue is

"And look in the flowers for fire-bug eyes" (32). Tally doesn't know what that means so she decides to take a rest. But since she's afraid of more flying machines, she kind of hides in the flowers. And when she wakes up, there's fire all around.
Chapter 21- Firestorm
The white flowers are burning all around Tally, which is one sort of alarm clock that you can't hit the snooze button on. Tally runs through the fire, trying to get to the river and her hoverboard. But just when she's flying over the river in her hoverboard, she sees one of those Rusty flying machines, which is spreading fire all over. Which seems really dumb to Tally. The flying machine also knocks Tally off her board into the river. And some masked people pick her up. Their masks give them "bug eyes."
Chapter 22- Bug Eyes
Tally gets pulled into the flying machine (with her hoverboard) and the masked people turn out to be pretties, just like Peris and the others back home. Except these pretties like to set fires. These pretties are rangers, and they're setting fires to the white flowers because the white flowers are an invasive species that kills off all the other plants. These white tiger orchids used to be rare, but some Rusty changed them so that they're really good at growing. Which isn't so good for everything, including the orchids. As one ranger explains, the orchids kills off the trees where hummingbirds live and the orchids need the hummingbirds. So the rangers have to keep setting fires to keep the orchids from spreading—and they've been fighting the orchids for 300 years. These rangers are sometimes friendly with the Smoke runaways and will take Tally to the next meeting place. So Tally has to start lying to the rangers about how great the runaways are, living in the woods, making the best guacamole, etc. The rangers drop Tally off among the orchids and leave. Tally follows the last of Shay's instructions, "Then wait on the bald head until it's light" (84). And luckily, there's a tall hill with nothing on it. So she waits for something to happen and thinks about how she'll have to betray Shay if she wants to get home.
Chapter 23- Lies
Shay and the other runaways find Tally waiting on the hill. Shay and Tally run and hug each other, which is the best way to start a betrayal. Tally starts lying about when she left and how long it took her to get here. And also, one of the other runaways finds a tracking device hidden by Dr. Cable in Tally's hoverboard—so there's lots of lying going on. And this is where Tally meets David, who is an ugly, but has a nice smile (25). David explains that the orchids are no match for the old-growth forest where they live. The rest of the land was all farm or other clear-cut area, so that's why the orchids took over.
Chapter 24- The model
The Smoke is smoky because they burn wood. In fact, Tally is totally surprised that the Smokies live by cutting down trees, which seems so… so Rusty. Shay takes Tally to the library, which every runaway community needs. They go to see the Boss, who isn't really in charge of the town but is very old. He's, like, 40. Since the boss is busy, Shay shows Tally a bunch of old magazines. Tally thinks the people in the magazines are freaks, even the models (who are too thin because they have eating disorders). But Shay says that you can get used to what these people look like pretty easily. Also, Shay explains how models are the professional pretties of their time. Shay also notices Tally's new pendant. Tally vaguely explains that someone gave her this pendant. In fact, Tally is about to confess everything to Shay when the Boss comes to yell at her for touching the old magazine with her dirty fingers.
Chapter 25- Work
Tally gets to learn more about the Smoke. For instance, Shay's friends—Croy, Ryde, Astrix—have only been here for five months and they're already as self-assured as pretties, just like David. They go to lunch and, as usual in cafeterias, everyone wants to hear all the newest gossip. That is, the runaways want to hear about what's going on in the city (several of them are from the same city as Tally); and they want to hear all about Tally's trip here. Which means that Tally has to lie a bit: she says she left the night before her birthday instead of several days after. But she does use lots of true statements, like saying that she was hiding in the flowers from the rangers. Only she lets the other runaways think that she was hiding for a while instead of one night. Tally really enjoys the attention she's getting from the runaways. But lunch ends and they need to get back to work. Shay teaches Tally to use a powerjack tool to pull up some tree roots and get at the railroad tracks that are underneath. Apparently, this was once railroad, but then the forest took it over. And the runaways need this railroad metal to lay out a grid for their hoverboards. It's enough to make you miss the city's nice hoverboard grid.
Chapter 26- David
After hours of work, Tally takes a break with David.

Her hands are all raw and blistery, so it's about time. David takes Tally to see a collapsed tunnel and all the railroad tracks buried under there. The boulders seem pretty solid, but Tally thinks about how a small shift would bring down all that weight on them—which sounds (to her) a lot like Dr. Cable and the city (crushing her). David brought her here because he can tell that she's taking this seriously. Some other runaways just think about this like a fun adventure, like camping out for a while. But for David, this place is home—he was born here, since his parents were runaways. And so Tally thinks that she can't call Dr. Cable because that would destroy David's

home.
Chapter 27- Heartthrob
Shay takes Tally to the store where she can trade her leftover SpagBols for things she needs. SpagBol is worth a lot here since they can't make dehydrated food in the Smoke. See, in the city, people seem to get whatever toys they want, but here in the wilderness, you have to work and trade to get stuff. Shay wants to talk to Tally about her secret, but Shay guesses (incorrectly) that Tally's secret is that she told someone else about the Smoke. And Shay says that's no big deal. In fact, Shay wasn't even supposed to tell Tally about the Smoke. Also, she doesn't believe in Special Circumstances. Shay also argues that everyone in the city is spoiled, and that the runaways should be free to live the life they want. We can't really argue with that.
Chapter 28- Suspicion
Tally gets used to living in the Smoke, gets used to the work, and to cool showers, and no Twitter. And she fits in well. In fact, David gives her some gloves as a present to protect her hands from all the hard labor. The fact that Tally is more comfortable in the Smoke makes it more ironic that Croy has some serious suspicions about her. Tally makes up some lie about not eating all her recommended daily SpagBol meals, but his suspicion makes her nervous. So when Shay is upset, Tally thinks it's about Croy's suspicions. In fact, Shay is upset because David gave his gloves to Tally instead of giving the gloves to her. Shay wants Tally to tell David about whoever gave her the heart pendant and thinks that Tally is being a little shady coming here and stealing the guy she likes.
Chapter 29- Bravery
Tally was getting a homey feeling from the Smoke, but now she feels a little exposed, as if everyone knows about her treachery, both ruining her friend's relationship and the Smoke in general.

She feels like the orchid—a destructive weed that ruins everything. But David wants to talk to her about how special he thinks she is. See, she's the first runaway to come all by herself, which gives her 100 bravery points, because she left everything she knew behind. David is also impressed that Tally did this all just out of friendship for Shay; and David trusts Tally because of how happy she was to see Shay when they met again. All this nice talk makes Tally feel something for David that she never felt for an ugly before. He even begins to look a little pretty to her. And Tally is so serious about the Smoke—unlike Shay—that David wants her to meet his parents and learn.
Chapter 30- The Secret
So David takes Tally to his parents' cabin, which is outside of the Smoke. David calls his parents "mom" and "dad," which is weird. ( Tally calls her parents by their names.) Also, weirdly, David looks like his parents. In the city, all those bizarre family traits get removed—like, no one has really big ears or a big nose or frizzy hair. David's parents Maddy and Az are doctors who have a secret. And they're a little annoyed at David because he brought Tally here and they don't like to tell their secret.
Chapter 31- Pretty

Minds
Maddy and Az were cosmetic surgeons on the Committee for Morphological Standards—or to make it easier, the Pretty Committee. That's the group that decides for all the cities what sort of surgery should be acceptable for the pretties. They were doing research on the pretty surgery and found that people had tiny lesions all over their brains. It turns out that lots of pretties are brain damaged—and brain damaged in the exact same way. The only pretties who don't have lesions have jobs that require quick thinking: firefighters, wardens, doctors, Shmoop writers, Special Circumstances, etc. In fact, it seems like the lesions are done to the pretties on purpose. That's why there's no war and everything is nice in the city—almost everyone is brain damaged to be happy and slow-thinking. The operation changes the way people look and the way they think.
Chapter 32- Burning Bridges