Of course, being the hopeful person that he was, Riley clung to the idea that he had simply made a mistake.
Instead of doubling down and justifying why his guess had to be right, the worried aide found himself doing the opposite. He started picking apart his own conclusions, listing all the ways his findings could be wrong.
For one, he definitely lacked the proper tools. He tried to factor in possible changes in landmasses over time, but surely he could have missed something. He was insistent on that even if what he had seen looked eerily similar to what the map flashes had shown him.
And even then, there could still be errors.
What if he had missed the proper landmarks? Like what if that closest body of water just looked similar?
What if he had identified the wrong kind of tree? Maybe that species had not only been endemic to that area. Maybe his professors had gotten the "facts" wrong and maybe Riley didn't get perfect marks for the exam that involved those blasted trees.
