Every year, Pyotr attended the founder's day celebration, and every year, he sat in the front row as the names of the fallen were read out. He was proud of his friends, but he also felt a deep sense of sadness that they weren't there to see the town they had saved.

As the ceremony ended and the crowd began to disperse, a young boy walked up to Pyotr. He was holding a small bouquet of wildflowers.

Pyotr looked around at the sea of standing people and felt a lump in his throat. He realized that he wasn't alone in his remembrance. The entire town was standing with him, and with his friends.

Pyotr reached into his pocket and pulled out an old, faded photograph. In it, a group of young men in worn-out uniforms smiled at the camera, their arms draped over each other's shoulders. They had been his best friends, and they had gone off to a conflict decades ago to protect their homes and families. Pyotr was the only one who had returned.

He looked up at the sky and felt a sense of peace. He knew that as long as the town remembered, his friends would never truly be gone.