posted Friday March 06, 2009 01:03pm EST

Tor.com Itā€™s the End of the World as We Know It Caption Contest

Last month, we explored our love of all-things zombie with a zombie caption contest, and now weā€™re back with yet another opportunity for you to express your creativity and thereby WIN FREE STUFF.

In addition to our deep and abiding love of zombies, we also just canā€™t get enough of mutants and irradiated wastelands almost entirely devoid of human life. Thus, the Tor.com Itā€™s the End of the World as We Know It Caption Contest.

How do you play? Itā€™s easy. All you have to do is come up with your best caption (50 words or less) for the post-apocalyptic photo above (click to embiggen), and post it as a comment in reply to this post. Our panel of judges will evaluate all of the entries, and our favorite one will be chosen as the winner.

The winner will receive an apocalyptic prize pack, containing:

One copy of Wastelands edited by John Joseph Adams, signed by the editor and personalized however you wish.
One copy of Fallout 3, the post-apocalyptic role-playing game from Bethesda Softworks (available on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3).
One print of the caption contest image, ā€After The End of the World.ā€¯ The print is 8x10, professionally created on Fuji Luster paper, and signed by the photographer/artist, Jeremiah Tolbert.

The end of the ~~world~~ contest will happen one week from today, March 13, Midnight (EST).

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. To participate in the ā€Itā€™s the End of the World as We Know It Captionā€¯ contest, leave a comment including a caption for the posted image in the comments section below, beginning Friday, 06 March, 2009 and ending on Friday, 13 March, 2009. Winners will be selected on the basis of originality, humor and creativity, each factor applied equally. Open to registered users of Tor.com who are legal U.S. residents 18 years of age and older. Void in Puerto Rico and where prohibited by law. For complete Official Rules, go here. Sponsor: Tor.com, a division of Macmillan, 175 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Updated: We have a winner! Full details here.

BOOKMARK

categories: ...and Related Subjects

tags: post-apocalyptic, apocalypse, mutants, contests, anthologies, Wastelands, fallout 3

112 comments

1. Kate_Baker
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 01:24pm EST

In prime position overlooking the ruined Emerald City, Dorothy checked her weapon supply in preparation for the alien-robo monkey onslaught.

2. Manzabar
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 01:42pm EST

It was bad enough when the moon cracked. Then the cities fell. And now some jerk was taking her picture weeks after her last shower. He might have gotten the first shot, but she would get the last.

3. UncrownedKing
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 01:43pm EST

TERMINATOR 17: With her trusty Geiger counter, gas mask, and scoped out AK-47, Sarah Connors is ready for the war that is still coming, sometime in the distant future, 15 years from now. Once all the robots have taken over, sometime. COMING SOON

4. zdrakec
Friday March 06, 2009 01:58pm EST

Time to start a new one, baby!

5. Dr_Hue
Friday March 06, 2009 01:59pm EST

Dirty uniform from Salvation Army ... $10 dollars
Pre-post apocalyptic high heel boots ... $15 dollars
No one left to see me like this ... priceless

6. R.Fife
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 02:01pm EST · amended on Friday March 06, 2009 05:25pm EST

Come and listen to a story about a gal named Zed
a poor mutanteer, made those glowies all eat lead
Then one day she was shootin at a thrall
And down through the sky came a firey ball

Rock, that is, moon stone, Kansas Crash

7. ShooneSprings
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 02:12pm EST

With a pose like this, I am totally getting on the next season of Survivor.

8. wise guy
Friday March 06, 2009 02:16pm EST

I'm thinking Arby's

9. pabba
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 02:19pm EST

Be vewwy, vewwy quiet...I'm hunting mutant wabbits!

10. Barnum004
Friday March 06, 2009 02:21pm EST

Ever since the Cyborg Uprising, electrical engineering had become a very different job.

11. MMc
Friday March 06, 2009 02:22pm EST

It's about time you got back. I had to shoot Billy. You hungry?

12. Rob Slater
Friday March 06, 2009 02:28pm EST

Getting to school on time was easier when the buses still ran.

13. Jenn M
Friday March 06, 2009 02:32pm EST

Ya see this gun? That's for your "last two people on Earth" fantasies.

14. g8rda
Friday March 06, 2009 02:38pm EST

The last thing he said was "Watch this."

15. joshkidd
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 02:40pm EST

You should see what I did to Mars.

16. Kelfyr
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 02:45pm EST

Down, but not out. Not yet.

17. Bob Lock
Friday March 06, 2009 02:45pm EST

Even though she was the last woman on Earth, Jane couldn't help but get in the queue early for the January sales. Sadly for her, just as the doors opened a giant rock fell on her head...

18. UncrownedKing
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 02:48pm EST

Buffy ain't got shit on me.

19. c0sys
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 03:04pm EST

The moon may be falling to earth, civilization as we know it may have ended, but there is NO way I'm going without pop radio!

20. robotrevolution
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 03:11pm EST

Escaping the city was easy. Avoiding radiation-mad mutants was harder. Now all she had to do to save her family was return to Eden with the contents of her bag intact before debris from the destroyed moon killed every remaining living thing above ground.

A woman's work is never done.

21. ascott4321
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 03:30pm EST

*sighs* I knew I shouldn't have eaten that burrito.

22. overtheseatoskye
Friday March 06, 2009 03:35pm EST

Anyone else want to call me "babe"?

23. lmelior
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 03:35pm EST · amended on Friday March 06, 2009 03:36pm EST

Day 65: I'm losing hope now. Low on ammo, Geiger's been flaky since the overload, gas mask's leaking, I'm beginning to feel weak from half rations, and there's still no sign of human life. But worst of all, damn it to hell, I'm almost out of black nail polish.

24. Jacob P. Silvia
Friday March 06, 2009 03:44pm EST

"I'd kill for a Snicker's bar right now. Literally."

25. bandenjamin
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 03:45pm EST

Just push the button, what's the worst that can happen? Right

26. mac-j-wicked
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 03:51pm EST

I am A PHOENIX

Apocalyptic Phoenix students are hard working vault-dwellers, settlers, soldiers, and mutants all striving to better themselves in fields like Lock Picking, Nuclear Arsenal and McGuyver Studies.

University of 2nd grade was good enough.

Every Phoenix has a story; not every Phoenix lives to tell it!

27. Victor R.
Friday March 06, 2009 03:52pm EST

Little did she know, the consequence of her actions..

28. Chris-Olson
Friday March 06, 2009 04:20pm EST

Well, damn. I guess they weren't kidding about not pushing the red button ...

29. Nomenclature
Friday March 06, 2009 04:48pm EST

Apocalypse? Yes!

But the end of the world isn't the end of fashion, with this spunky, sexy ensemble from Zombie & Gabana...

30. Susan Loyal
Friday March 06, 2009 05:10pm EST

Mom said I was grounded.

31. Hank Armstrong
Friday March 06, 2009 05:24pm EST

Who knew the Chinese AND the Russians would get so mad about basing those nukes on the moon?

32. smonkey
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 09:09pm EST

We were doing great against skynet until the new terminator "Anthony Bourdain" models decided they needed 20 billion tons of blue cheese for project "Caesar Salad"

33. Undertoad
Friday March 06, 2009 09:17pm EST

Inspired by glimpses of TANKGIRL, CABIN FEVER and OUT OF AFRICA, he lugged canteens to the edge of the city. Tent pegs. Petrified marshmallows. Flashlights. A cardboard standee completed his collection. And this shot, fortuitously enabled after a rock exploding in the campfire briefly separated Wall-Eā€™s head from his body.

34. mwschmeer
Friday March 06, 2009 09:34pm EST

Call me Wormwood. I'm bitter.

35. heresiarch
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 09:38pm EST

Barry, our astronomer, took some measurements. You can't see it yet, not with the naked eye, but you could tell from the way his body shook behind the telescope.

He gives it six weeks.

36. J M McDermott
Friday March 06, 2009 10:30pm EST

"Right, what I'm going to do is sneak up on that super mutant, and then stick my thumb right up it's bunghole. That should really piss it off!"

37. David Roth
Friday March 06, 2009 11:14pm EST

An angel came to the city without even her wings to guide her. Lost and forgotten, all that was left was to start over.

38. leighdb
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 06, 2009 11:57pm EST

"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

39. jsmith54
Saturday March 07, 2009 12:57am EST

Though darkness and death had fallen on the city, she knew that in the morning, light and life would come again.

40. Joe Fitzgerald
Saturday March 07, 2009 02:22am EST

I know what you're thinking, I was just thinking the same thing. It appears a gargantuan jack-o-lantern monster has taken bites out of the city skyline. My name is Melinda, and I'm here to smash that rotten pumpkin.

41. Jules
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday March 07, 2009 05:04am EST

With her Geiger counter, gas mask and trusty rifle, Tania was prepared for anything.

Except for the survival-equipment-turns-on-its-masters apocalypse, of course.

42. JaneEgirl2
Saturday March 07, 2009 10:36am EST

Feels like a Monday, I think I should've stayed in bed...

43. JaneEgirl
Saturday March 07, 2009 10:37am EST

I told them not to annoy me when I've got PMS...

44. Heydere
Saturday March 07, 2009 10:39am EST

Apocalypse? What Apocalypse?

45. HelmHammerhand
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday March 07, 2009 02:55pm EST · amended on Monday March 09, 2009 11:21am EDT

46. HelmHammerhand
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday March 07, 2009 02:57pm EST

If not for the lichen, Eunice might have gotten away with it.

47. mwschmeer
Saturday March 07, 2009 03:10pm EST

After she saved us from the zombie rabbit apocalypse, no one made fun of Elmira Fudd's speech impediment again.

48. DreamySusan
Saturday March 07, 2009 03:55pm EST

Found pasted to a window in 1 Main Street South, New Denver, August 23, 2062

Mabel Adams, Captain 2022 to 2025.
At the discovery of the green mecca of New Denver. May her soul grow like a vine into the stars.

49. Black-Veiled_Alex
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday March 07, 2009 07:16pm EST

"Oh wow... Guess Mom wasn't lying bout that whole God doesn't like it when you have sex before marriage thing."

50. Black-Veiled_Alex
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday March 07, 2009 07:17pm EST · amended on Sunday March 08, 2009 06:42pm EDT

"Guess this is what we get for hiring a chemistry teacher without a degree."

51. Black-Veiled_Alex
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday March 07, 2009 07:22pm EST

"I was only trying to help, I swear!"

52. mraf
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday March 07, 2009 07:59pm EST

"I've got your Roche limit right here."

53. SMD
Sunday March 08, 2009 12:55am EST

Radiation, cannibalistic biker gangs, and mutant alligators, oh my!

54. build6
VIEW ALL BY · Sunday March 08, 2009 10:02am EDT

Alone, with everything she really needed, her future stretches out before her

55. disembodiedspirit
VIEW ALL BY · Sunday March 08, 2009 01:59pm EDT

Certainly, the Last Girl. Like a page from Mary Shelley's catastrophic novel, "The Last Man," when she wrote, "Yes, I may well describe that solitary being's feelings, feeling myself as the last relic of a beloved race, my companions extinct before me."

56. ClintA
Sunday March 08, 2009 02:41pm EDT

My name is Susan Robertson. I am a survivor living in the outskirts of the City. I am broadcasting on all AM frequencies. I will be at the rock over looking the south seaport everyday at mid-day, when the sun is highest in the sky. If you are out there... if anyone is out there...I can provide security. If there's anybody out there... anybody... please. You are not alone.

57. rtegan
Sunday March 08, 2009 04:49pm EDT

"Phobos: Circa 2212"

58. Worthy
Sunday March 08, 2009 06:07pm EDT

She knew she was close...she HAD to be. Close to the place that old man had told her stories about, sung songs about. She knew she would finally be safe-if she could just get to Thunderdome.

59. Gary Emes
Sunday March 08, 2009 08:12pm EDT

Anybody seen the vacuum?

60. atherness
VIEW ALL BY · Sunday March 08, 2009 08:56pm EDT

The moon wasn't the only thing that was cracked.

61. Marilyn Wons
Sunday March 08, 2009 11:51pm EDT

I always heard a good man is hard to find, try looking for a good woman....

62. Dawson Ayers
Sunday March 08, 2009 11:56pm EDT

She looked far into the distance, she could make out the blasted shells of buildings, and from where she stood they looked almost as they once had before they had been destroyed during the war. But she knew that as she approached the capitol city, the true horror of a nuclear strike would reveal itself in the twisted ruins of the Capitol Wasteland. She wondered how anything could have lived out here for the past two hundred years, after such a devastating war that left little standing and had blasted the earth with radiation. Then she said, "Home sweet home."

63. BoSt
VIEW ALL BY · Monday March 09, 2009 01:05am EDT · amended on Monday March 09, 2009 01:18am EDT

Three days until impact; civilization's a mass of smouldering rubble; I'm all alone in the big, wide end-of-the-world and the last automated digital signal on air is playing The Complete History of Hip-Hop. Hell, the only good thing about Hip-Hop is that it makes Disco sound like music. She turned off the receiver. Maybe its only right that the world ends in silence.

64. trujunglist
Monday March 09, 2009 01:56am EDT

I'm alone again, but not for long. Night's coming soon, and I just drank the last Coke. The nearest hole is at least 2 miles from here, and I only have one bullet left. Alone again, but not for long. At least I have one bullet. I'm saving that one for me.

65. Michael Kwek
Monday March 09, 2009 02:10am EDT

Tonight we will get our rest, because tomorrow we will go into the city and fight for the existence of mankind

66. Joey C.
Monday March 09, 2009 03:07am EDT

"Wanna get away ? " Now you can. Fly Southwest Airlines non-stop from the end of the World to the other side for just $49 one way.

67. christopher h23456
Monday March 09, 2009 05:09am EDT

thank god i watched all those episodes of thundarr the barbarian as a child

68. cdziuba
Monday March 09, 2009 08:28am EDT

First Lady Michelle Obama prepares for Jihad (picture taken outside of Chicago).

69. Dual45s
Monday March 09, 2009 09:05am EDT

The "nude" tanktop. $49.95

Make the boys wonder if you're wearing anything under that kevlar...and if you'll shoot them for staring.

70. cybernetic_nomad
VIEW ALL BY · Monday March 09, 2009 09:48am EDT

Lets look at the bright side: no more full moon means no more werewolves

71. Bradley Carver
Monday March 09, 2009 11:13am EDT

Hey! What are you staring at!?! Get your rusty tin can in gear soldier! We're off to frag the Wizard!

72. norrisiv
Monday March 09, 2009 11:21am EDT

I don't want to set the world on fire...

73. Shirley Hodge
Monday March 09, 2009 11:29am EDT

Free at last, free at last!

74. thc7
Monday March 09, 2009 12:20pm EDT

Mugatu's new 'Ragnarique' campaign... sorry you didn't book it.

75. bandenjamin
VIEW ALL BY · Monday March 09, 2009 01:16pm EDT

I've got a bad feeling about this

76. jemscout425
Monday March 09, 2009 03:38pm EDT

she was exhausted, trying to figure out if it was worth going on or living at all. what if she was the only living soul on earth, the human race would end with her, then this jerk showed up with a camera. she took one look at it and now she fully underdtood the phrase, "not if you were the last man on earth."

77. lummer5000
VIEW ALL BY · Monday March 09, 2009 10:04pm EDT

I told you that I couldn't hit a duck on the wing.

78. jrodenbiker
VIEW ALL BY · Monday March 09, 2009 11:24pm EDT

You know a man packed the post-apocalypse survival kit when it doesn't include tampons.

79. jrodenbiker
VIEW ALL BY · Monday March 09, 2009 11:28pm EDT

BTW: The "PRIZES" section of the official rules need to be updated.

80. Joe Della Valle
Monday March 09, 2009 11:50pm EDT

She only has 24 hours to find her Dad so he can save the planet and put the moon back together. Being chased by mutant cougars and lifeforms unknown, she's trapped outside of the L.A. wasteland.

Aliens and Mutants ... Damn it, where's Chloe!!!

This is Kim Bauer, and today is the longest day of her life.

81. ChrisF
Tuesday March 10, 2009 04:52am EDT

Mad Maxine's photoshoot was halted three times by raider attacks. Fortunately, they had some good loot.

82. dejaffa
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday March 10, 2009 07:59am EDT

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine...

83. jessicamelusine
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday March 10, 2009 01:19pm EDT

Apokallisti
No more headshots (except cannibalsā€”she killed five). No cattle calls, no hearing too exotic, too angular. She Let Herself Go, is In The Moment (would make her yoga teacher proud).
The broken city lies ahead, a red carpet, a poison apple at her feet. She smiles, the prettiest.

84. Georgiana
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday March 10, 2009 06:30pm EDT

Wait a minute, did he say cut the green wire?

85. Benner
Tuesday March 10, 2009 06:39pm EDT

The sprites and color kids were killed in a raid in rainbowland. Ms Brite, the only survivor, has now ditched her colorful wardobe to begin her quest for revenge.
Those aren't star sprinkles in her bag, just bullets.

86. smoot666
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday March 11, 2009 12:58am EDT

Got milk?

87. pablodefendini
VIEW ALL BY · Wednesday March 11, 2009 01:17am EDT

@jrodenbiker
Fixed. Many thanks.

88. Vergie
Wednesday March 11, 2009 01:00pm EDT

FOLLOW OR LEAVE!

89. mikepaul
Wednesday March 11, 2009 10:03pm EDT

Sure, the asteroid that broke the moon and brought the Zombie Plague screwed everything up, but there were always a few quiet moments to enjoy the scenery and get ready to run like hell while reloading...

90. tyguy
Thursday March 12, 2009 09:36am EDT

So this is "green" living. I prefer plumbing, AC, and lattes.

91. gopakumar.sethuraman
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday March 12, 2009 01:01pm EDT

(I'm going to steal a line from the Terminator Salvation trailer):

"This is not the future my mother warned me about."

92. SheilaRuth
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday March 12, 2009 02:10pm EDT

Home is where you hang your rifle.

93. Joe Perozzi
Thursday March 12, 2009 03:59pm EDT

All but one woman died,There at Widow's Peak,And they say she ran away. (Chorus) Stranded,left by the toilet bowl,What do you do when your stranded,and you don't have a roll! Wherever you go,rest of your time,You must prove you can rhyme!

94. olias sunsparkle
Thursday March 12, 2009 04:18pm EDT

The Child Of Phil Mickleson At War With Golf Clubs In Hand!

95. beket
Thursday March 12, 2009 05:38pm EDT

I knew I should've turned left at Albuquerque.

96. Toshi Fumayaki
Thursday March 12, 2009 06:53pm EDT

"So why does that backdrop look so fake?"

97. jgtheok
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday March 12, 2009 06:59pm EDT

Being the last one on the planet, okay.

But turning off the sun was going to be a problem...

98. gkiril
Thursday March 12, 2009 09:51pm EDT

Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.

The end of the world? It has only just begun!

99. bonehead16661
Thursday March 12, 2009 11:11pm EDT

Unfortunately for Kate, the radiation destroyed all of the men's appendages, she would be the last of her kind...

100. JasonMy
Thursday March 12, 2009 11:42pm EDT

This world is coming to an end. Abercrombe & Fitch merged with Cabelas to create a new line of clothing. This new ad appeals to the models that like to hunt crowd. She traded in daddys ferrari for self sustaining generators and hunting gear when she heard about the imminent fallout coming.

101. Caleb Edens
Friday March 13, 2009 05:17am EDT

A Megaton resident snagged this wastelander's couch for the grand opening of the Church of Sofa.

102. hodgsopg
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 13, 2009 07:56am EDT

It may be the end of the world. Get a grip... Don't panic... Think Positive... Justin Timberlake is dead. There, feel better?

103. HeatherS
Friday March 13, 2009 10:43am EDT

From a bluff overlooking Manhattan an investor plotted against Bernard Madoff. She was heard yelling, "Before Fallout"!

104. Sidetrack'd
Friday March 13, 2009 11:40am EDT

The little brat was right after all,
God rest his soul.

The sky really is falling...

105. joshua davis
Friday March 13, 2009 12:54pm EDT

global warming is a myth

106. Eric Cash
Friday March 13, 2009 01:18pm EDT

My name is Samantha Jamison. The date is March 15th, 2013. I am the only one left. If you can hear this, help me. Please... I'll show you my boobs. Just help me.

107. Linz47
Friday March 13, 2009 03:29pm EDT

I remember my life in the city - sipping fine champagne, nibbling cavier and crackers. Were those days happy - no, I was not born to be a grand lady .... I was born to be free ... to be ME !

108. glasserc
VIEW ALL BY · Friday March 13, 2009 04:50pm EDT

You and what army?

109. Cathy King-Chuparkoff
Friday March 13, 2009 07:14pm EDT

Mission 1: Find pharmacy and obtain all anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medications to handle whatever comes my way...

110. bonbon123
Friday March 13, 2009 10:43pm EDT

About time that degree in post-apocalyptic photography paid off...*sigh*...if only I had remembered to load the camera with film....

111. PAOConnell
Saturday March 14, 2009 10:28pm EDT

Well--after all the idiots finished with the nastiness, Moonrise and Moonset are now plural!

112. JayQue
Sunday March 15, 2009 02:28pm EDT

The rain of the nuclear holocaust was just the beginning. For a lone survivor the promise of a quick, painless death was long gone. Now, for this lonely soul, the hard part begins. Clinging desperately to hope, will she find something worth living for? Was there anything left?