Sweet Their Blood and Sticky

"Sweet Their Blood and Sticky" by Albert Teichner is a science fiction story that transports readers to a far-off world, long after humans are gone. The story centers on Creno and Harta, travelers from another place, who find a giant machine making pink goo in an empty land. Weird creatures are eating the goo, and Harta starts to think the machine might have made these creatures. Creno, the older of the two, tries to help Harta understand, but she keeps wondering where everything came from. Harta then finds another, much older, machine buried below. This discovery shows a repeating pattern of creating and destroying, making Creno and Harta think hard about what it means to be alive and how much we can really know.